While in unholy war foe strives with foe,
   Dead lies the loader of a great crusade;
The pale-faced warrior lays our hero low.
   Whose mighty weapon ayo for Kight was swayed.
Vice fled before it, Falsehood bowed its head;
   Injustice cowed, turned on its recreant heel;
While the fierce light of honest Truth was shed
   In dueling rays from hit all-glorious steel.
The pen is mightier than the sword, they say,—
   Let both for once to his grand pencil yield;
Look kick upon the foes in grim array
   His pencil left heart-pierecd upon the field!
It tore the victim from Death's vengeful grasp,*
   It fought with vice in many a secret den.
The old knight falls, his weapon in his clasp,
   And leaves its work his monument to men.

* Cruikshank’s famous “Bank Note” led to the abolition of the death penalty for forgery.

Related material

Bibliography

“George Cruikshank.” Fun. (13 February 1878): 76. Web version from the George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida. Web. 11 July 2017.


Last modified 11 July 2017