Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ULTIMA THULE: THE BURIAL OF THE POET; RICHARD HENRY DANA, by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW


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ULTIMA THULE: THE BURIAL OF THE POET; RICHARD HENRY DANA, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the old churchyard of his native town
Last Line: Mysterious and triumphant signs are these.
Subject(s): Dana, Richard Henry (1815-1882); Funerals; Burials


In the old churchyard of his native town,
And in the ancestral tomb beside the wall,
We laid him in the sleep that comes to all,
And left him to his rest and his renown.
The snow was falling, as if Heaven dropped down
White flowers of Paradise to strew his pall;--
The dead around him seemed to wake, and call
His name, as worthy of so white a crown.
And now the moon is shining on the scene,
And the broad sheet of snow is written o'er
With shadows cruciform of leafless trees,
As once the winding-sheet of Saladin
With chapters of the Koran; but, ah! more
Mysterious and triumphant signs are these.







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