Lo! in its still, soft-shrouded place, The pathos of a death-pale face! I view the marks of mortal care Time's hopeless sorrows branded there. Waning beneath the noiseless glide Of Lethe's dim, ethereal tide, As furrows on some twilight lea Fade in calm wave-sweeps of the sea! Across that bare, unbended brow The chrism of peace has fallen now, And, lightening life's austere eclipse, A star-soft smile hath touched the lips: Though his sealed sight the death-mists mar, He hath a strange look, fixed afar: -- As if wan folds of curtained eyes Trembled almost in act to rise, And show where each cold-lidded sheath Now veils the wide, weird orbs beneath, The mirrored glow, the blest surprise Of some first glimpse of Paradise! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MIDSUMMER BIRDS by ROBERT FROST THERE IS NO NATURAL RELIGION (B) by WILLIAM BLAKE AN ELEGY UPON THE DEATH OF DOCTOR DONNE, DEAN OF PAUL'S by THOMAS CAREW AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG by OLIVER GOLDSMITH SONNETS OF MANHOOD: 6. LOVE'S DESPAIR by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) PSALM 12. SALVUM ME FAC by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE BRITANNIA'S PASTORALS: BOOK 2. THE FOURTH SONG by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |