I I SAW a dead man's finer part Shining within each faithful heart Of those bereft. Then said I: 'This must be His immortality.' II I looked there as the seasons wore, And still his soul continuously bore A life in theirs. But less its shine excelled Than when I first beheld. III His fellow-yearsmen passed, and then In later hearts I looked for him again; And found him - shrunk, alas! into a thin And spectral mannikin. IV Lastly I ask - now old and chill - If aught of him remain unperished still; And find, in me alone, a feeble spark, Dying amid the dark. |