<\/p>\n
The Soldiers Grave<\/strong> Dear land of my birth-of my friends of my love, (Editor’s Note: This poem was found amongst the letters kept by James Johnston’s mother Mrs Ann Adie Johnston and clearly it meant a lot to her in that she felt it was very much about her son.)<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Soldiers Grave by Ann Linton, Edinburgh 8th Feb 1831 Dear land of my birth-of my friends of my love, Shall I never again climb thy mountains; Nor wander at eve through the lone leafy grove, To listen-the dash of thy fountains? Shall no hand that I love close my faint beaming eyes That […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-460","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=460"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462,"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/460\/revisions\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jamesjohnstons-indianletters.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nby Ann Linton, Edinburgh 8th Feb 1831<\/p>\n
\nShall I never again climb thy mountains;
\nNor wander at eve through the lone leafy grove,
\nTo listen-the dash of thy fountains?
\nShall no hand that I love close my faint beaming eyes
\nThat darkens -mud warfare and danger?
\nAh no: for I feel-that my last heaving sigh, must fleet-on the gale of the stranger.
\nThen farewell, ye valley-ye fresh blooming bowers,
\nOf childhood the once happy dwelling
\nNo more in your haunts-shall I chase the gay hours
\nFor death-at my bosom is knelling,
\nBut proudly the lotus-shall bloom o’er the grave,
\nTo mark-where a freeman is sleeping;
\nAnd my dirge shall be heard in the Nile’s dashing waves
\nwhere the Arab-his night-watch is keeping.
\n‘Twas a soldier -who spoke, but his voice now is yore
\nAnd lowly- the hero is lying;
\nNo sound meets the ear, save the crocodile moan,
\nOr the breeze-though he rests-where the camel is seen,
\nBy the wilderness heavily pacing,
\nHis grave in our bosom-shall ever be green,
\nAnd his monument-ne’er know defacing.<\/p>\n