Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
With apologies to Alfred, some paraphrase:George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President of the United States, has died at the age of 94.
https://www.npr.org/2018/11/30/423556608/former-president-george-h-w-bush-dies-at-94
BURY the Great Bush
With a country’s lamentation,
Let us bury the Great Bush
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation,
Mourning when their leaders fall,
Warriors carry the warrior’s pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall.
O friends, our chief state-oracle is mute:
Mourn for the man of long-enduring blood,
The statesman-warrior, moderate, resolute,
Whole in himself, a common good.
Mourn for the man of amplest influence,
Yet clearest of ambitious crime,
Our greatest yet with least pretence,
Great in council and great in war,
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common-sense,
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
He is gone who seem’d so great.—
Gone; but nothing can bereave him
Of the force he made his own
Being here, and we believe him
Something far advanced in State,
And that he wears a truer crown
Than any wreath that man can weave him.
Speak no more of his renown,
Lay your earthly fancies down,
And in the vast rotunda leave him,
God accept him, Christ receive him.