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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


UNDER THE GROUND by HERMAN MELVILLE

Poet Analysis

First Line: BETWEEN A GARDEN AND OLD TOMB
Last Line: "YEA, WE THE ROSE ENTOMB."
Subject(s): FLOWERS; ROSES;

Between a garden and old tomb
Disused, a foot-path threads the clover;
And there I met the gardener's boy
Bearing some dewy chaplets over.

I marvelled, for I just had passed
The charnel vault and shunned its gloom:
"Stay, whither wend you, laden thus;
Roses! you would not these inhume?"

"Yea, for against the bridal hour
My Master fain would keep their bloom;
A charm in the dank o'the vault there is,
Yea, we the rose entomb."



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