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Letitia Elizabeth Landon - Scenes In London II - Oxford Street
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LIFE in its many shapes was there, 
	The busy and the gay;
	Faces that seemed too young and fair
	To ever know decay.

	Wealth, with its waste, its pomp, and pride,
	Led forth its glittering train;
	And poverty`s pale face beside
	Asked aid, and asked in vain.

	The shops were filled from many lands,
	Toys, silks, and gems, and flowers;
	The patient work of many hands,
	The hope of many hours.

	Yet, mid life`s myriad shapes around
	There was a sigh of death;
	There rose a melancholy sound,
	The bugle`s wailing breath.

	They played a mournful Scottish air,
	That on its native hill
	Had caught the notes the night-winds bear
	From weeping leaf and rill.

	`Twas strange to hear that sad wild strain
	Its warning music shed,
	Rising above life`s busy train,
	In memory of the dead.

	There came a slow and silent band
	In sad procession by:
	Reversed the musket in each hand,
	And downcast every eye.

	They bore the soldier to his grave;
	The sympathyzing crowd
	Divided like a parted wave
	By some dark vessel ploughed.

	A moment, and all sounds were mute,
	For awe was over all;
	You heard the soldier`s measured foot,
	The bugle`s wailing call.

	The gloves were laid upon the bier,
	The helmet and the sword,
	The drooping war-horse followed near,
	As he, too, mourned his lord.

	Slowly—I followed too—they led
	To where a church arose,
	And flung a shadow o`er the dead,
	Deep as their own repose.

	Green trees were there—beneath the shade
	Of one, was made a grave;
	And there to his last rest was laid
	The weary and the brave.

	They fired a volley o`er the bed
	Of an unconscious ear;
	The birds sprang fluttering overhead,
	Struck with a sudden fear.

	All left the ground, the bugles died
	Away upon the wind;
	Only the tree`s green branches sighed
	O`er him they left behind.

	Again, all filled with light and breath,
	I passed the crowded street—
	Oh, great extremes of life and death,
	How strangely do ye meet!
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