Requiem for the Plantagenet Kings

For whom the possessed sea littered, on both shores,

Ruinous arms; being fired, and for good,

To sound the constitution of just wars,

Men, in their eloquent fashion, understood.

Relieved of soul, the dropping-back of dust,

Their usage, pride, admitted within doors;

At home, under caved chantries, set in trust,

With well-dressed alabaster and proved spurs

They lie; they lie; secure in the decay

Of blood, blood-marks, crowns hacked and coveted,

Before the scouring fires of trial-day

Alight on men; before sleeked groin, gored head,

Budge through the clay and gravel, and the sea

Across daubed rock evacuates its dead.