Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE OLD GRAVEYARD, PRINCETON, by FRANCIS CHARLES MACDONALD


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE OLD GRAVEYARD, PRINCETON, by                    
First Line: Now to this quiet place the living come
Last Line: "leave us at greater distance every day . . ."
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Princeton, New Jersey; Graveyards


Now to this quiet place the living come
To make their question of the faithful dead.
Eager each name and epitaph is read;
And many a deed recorded, like the drum
Before a battle, stirs the blood, and dumb
White marble speaks for spirits long since fled.
"'I saved the state," and "I for freedom bled,"
"I brought the word of God," some say; and some
In humbler fashion served the lives of men.
But all of them have this as well to say:
"Let not our limits hold your ventures back!
Know that we came beyond the rest; and then
With higher aim upon the forward track
Leave us at greater distance every day . . ."





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