Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN THE STRAND, by LEWIS MORRIS (1833-1907)


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN THE STRAND, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: In the midst of the busy and roaring strand
Last Line: It preaches its mystical promise of life.
Subject(s): Graves; Hope; Strand, London; Tombs; Tombstones; Optimism


IN the midst of the busy and roaring Strand,
Dividing life's current on either hand,
A time-worn city church, sombre and grey,
Waits, while the multitude passes away.

Beside it, a strait plot of churchyard ground
Is fenced by a time-worn railing around;
And within, like a pavement, the ground is spread
With the smooth worn stones of the nameless dead.

But here and there, in the spaces between,
When the slow Spring bursts, and the fields grow green,
Every year that comes, 'mid the graves of the dead
Some large-leaved flower-stem lifts up its head.

In the Spring, though as yet the sharp East be here,
This green stem burgeons forth year after year:
Through twenty swift summers and more, have I seen
This tender shoot rise from its sheath of green.

New busy crowds pass on with hurrying feet,
The young lives grow old and the old pass away;
But unchanged, 'mid the graves, at the fated day,
The green sheath bursts upwards and grows complete.

From the grave it bursts forth, 'mid the graves it shall die,
It shall die as we die, as it lives we shall live;
And this poor flower has stronger assurance to give,
Than volumes of learning, which blunder or lie.

For out of the dust and decay of the tomb,
It springs, the sun calling, to beauty and bloom;
And amid the sad city, 'mid death and 'mid strife,
It preaches its mystical promise of life.





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