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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE DEAD: 2 by DAVID MORTON

First Line: ALL SOULS' NIGHT! FORTH FROM THEIR DWELLING PLACES
Last Line: FOR FINDING REMEMBERED AND REMEMBERING FACES.
Subject(s): ALL SOULS' NIGHT; DEATH; ALL HALLOWS NIGHT; DEAD, THE;

II

All Souls' Night! Forth from their dwelling places
They cross the aching and uneasy night,
Seeking old doors and dear remembered faces,
Peering unseen in windows where a light
Falls on some book they loved or on some chair
Where they had rested many a night ago;
And well for them if one dear face be there
Whose unforgetting eyes they knew -- and know.
Ah, well for them if in the quiet speech
That passes round the low-burned candle flame,
Some old familiar tale the listeners reach,
And silence fall about a spoken name. --
Better their sleep in those dim dwelling places,
For finding remembered and remembering faces.



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