Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ALL SOULS DAY, by FERDINAND VON SAAR


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ALL SOULS DAY, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wild and wan, and chill
Last Line: Anticipates his own.
Subject(s): Cemeteries; Death; Flowers; Graves; Soul; Graveyards; Dead, The; Tombs; Tombstones


WILD and wan, and chill,
It is the Feast of Souls!
A cold grey cloud
For sheet and shroud
Wraps God's Acre on the hill,
Where the folded dead lie still—
It is the Feast of Souls!

The twinkling grave-lights shine
Upon the steep hillside,
As though night shed
Above the dead
Her stars for tears, and kind hands twine
Emblem, wreath, and funeral vine
Upon the steep hillside.

With consecrated flame
Each sepulchre is lit,
And hung with thought
Of flowers caught
In bronze or marble. Each can claim
Some share in memory or fame,
Each sepulchre is lit.

What of the homeless dead?
What of the nameless ones
Who knew no bier,
No tender tear,
Whose far, unechoing footsteps led
From birth to death uncomforted—
What of the nameless ones?

Ah! thoughts are dedicate
To-day to those unknown.
One, worn with life,
Distress and strife,
As they were, and as desolate,
Stands shuddering, compassionate,
And in their dark and silent fate
Anticipates his own.





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