From 'Sketches of the Royal Irish Constabulary', by Michael Brophy, ex-Sgt., RIC; 1886
The following beautiful little poem was written by Sub-constable Patrick Stacke, a native of Comragh, County Waterford, who has since resigned his appointment and become an editor of an American journal. It is the only fragment I can produce of his literary compositions, and it was written by him on a sickbed, from which he concluded he would never rise; but his foreboding did not come to pass, for he recovered, to be able in after years to “sling ink” in the States. The poem is composed in a laconic species of metre intended to be suggestive of a person gasping out his last request on earth, and it is is entitled -
“The Last Request”
“In a nook
Where the brook
Murmurs by.
In the gloom
Of the tomb
Let me lie.At the head
Of my bed
Place the stone.
All I claim
Is my name -
There alone.Let the green
Still be seen
Where I rest,
Of the grand
Dear old land
I love best.Should you pass
O'er the grass
Shed a tear,
O'er the wild
Mountain child
Sleeping here.”
