Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THEY WILL DIE, by AUGUSTA DAVIES WEBSTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THEY WILL DIE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I plucked sweet laughing roses from the spray
Last Line: "these do not die."
Alternate Author Name(s): Home, Cecil; Webster, Mrs. Julia Augusta
Subject(s): Immortality


I.


I PLUCKED sweet laughing roses from the spray,
And said, "Oh! fair, I twine you in my life,
So shall your sweetness glad my saddest day,
And I forget it in the bitter strife
Wherewith the world wears on its warring way"--
There came a whisper from the light-fleeced sky,
"Ah! they will die."

II.
I twined a silvery green elastic bough
Of pensive willow to soft mourning wed.
"Since gathered joys must fade from me, be thou
The tender memory of such loved dead,
My sad, sweet, comforting companion now"--
Sighed slowly from the greyly clouding sky,
"Even that will die."

III.

I decked me with the laurel's emerald glow,
And spake, "Ah! glorious leaves, that perish not,
Sheen verdant on my shadow-coolèd brow,
Sheen verdant still, when my pale corse forgot,
Decaying in the grave lies lone and low"--
Moaned the cold wind that hurried harshly by,
"One day they die."

IV.

I bent me hoping by the cross-blessed tomb--
There grew beneath crisp everlasting flowers--
I spake to them, "Cold flowers, that grow in gloom,
Yet bear the promise of long golden hours,
Eternal, be my garland in the room
Of those, too fragile, from Earth's smiling bowers"--
Came then a sweet voice from the sunset sky,
"These do not die."





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