Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE MEMORY OF AN OLD MAN (H.F.), by EDWARD NOYES POMEROY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE MEMORY OF AN OLD MAN (H.F.), by                    
First Line: And is he gone-the genial, dear old man
Last Line: "is re-united to its father—god."
Subject(s): Memory; Old Age


And is he gone—the genial, dear old man,
Whom all his townsmen knew and knew to love;
Whose simple word another's word outran,
Whose daily thoughts had long found rest above?

Long had men missed him from the busy street,
From hearths and haunts frequented many a year,
Yet still they said: "Where men and Christians meet
His place is vacant, but his heart is here."

And has he passed beyond our words and ways,
Whose life was humble as his faith sublime;
Whose sunken eyes, with serious, far-off gaze,
Saw other than the trivial things of time?

Yes, he is gone; his more than ninety years
Are numbered with the never-changing past;
We do not mourn him, Youth claims all our tears;
We give him joy that Heaven is reached at last;

Where age no more the senses can destroy,
Nor grief pursue, nor calumny assail;
Where trouble cannot qualify the joy,
Nor trifles burden, nor desire fail.

We shrink from an eternity untried,
But none can for a moment wish him back;
His faith has changed to vision; doubt has died;
The life eternal can no blessing lack.

Who would not choose a lowly life like his,
So sweet an odor to embalm his name,
In place of gifts that a high purpose miss,
And honor that the good but reckon shame?

Who would not feel, when he lies down to die,
And earthly treasures drop from his embrace,
The mist and darkness from his vision fly,
And fadeless light illuminate his face?

What language speaks he now we do not know,
Nor of his thoughts can comprehend the half,
But should their current through old channels flow,
Perhaps he would indite this epitaph:

"No further strife with ills invincible;
No more encroachment of decay and rust;
Earth hath reclaimed this borrowed particle
Of seldom-noticed, soon-forgotten dust;"

"No longer exiled from its native skies,
And freed forever from its earthly clod,
The spirit, in the Heavenly Paradise,
Is re-united to its Father—God."





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