Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THANATOPSIS FOR HETTY, by CALE YOUNG RICE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THANATOPSIS FOR HETTY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Hartman's seamstress, hetty
Last Line: To the no-more-needy dead.
Subject(s): Death; Flowers; Graves; Sleep; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


Hartman's seamstress, Hetty,
Losing the road to sleep,
Then work too, sought death --
To make it pay her keep.

They bought her a cheap coffin
And a bare lot on a hill
And a dress she did not have to make,
But only to lie in, still.

She slept quite well in earth:
Never sewing a seam,
Never saving a penny,
Never having a dream.

Even forgetting the lover
Who came, and went away,
When she was one and twenty:
She slept quite well in clay.

For Hartman sent flowers,
To cover the grave's need;
And the priest said he hoped
The Lord would pardon her deed.

And every one was kind --
As Hetty would have said.
As everyone is --
To the no-more-needy dead.





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