Ah, lovely appearance of death! No sight upon earth is so fair; Not all the gay pageants that breathe Can with a dead body compare. With solemn delight I survey The corpse when the spirit is fled; In love with the beautiful clay, And longing to lie in its stead. How blest is our brother, bereft Of all that could burthen his mind! How easy the soul, that hath left This wearisome body behind! This languishing head is at rest, Its thinking and aching are o'er; This quiet immovable breast Is heaved by affliction no more. To mourn and to suffer is mine, While bound in a prison I breathe, And still for deliverance pine, And press to the issues of death. What now with my tears I bedew, O! might I this moment become! My spirit created anew, My flesh be consigned to the tomb. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WHY I AM A LIBERAL by ROBERT BROWNING THE SPHINX by RALPH WALDO EMERSON SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: HARRY WILMANS by EDGAR LEE MASTERS EPIGRAM: 27. THE FRUIT by THOMAS WYATT I WOULD BE THE SUN by JOHANNA AMBROSIUS THE LAST MAN: RECEPTION OF EVIL TIDINGS by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES PSALM 111 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |