ABOVE his grave the grass and snow Their soft antiphonal strophes write: Moonrise and daybreak come and go: Summer by summer on the height The thrushes find melodious breath. Here let no vagrant winds that blow Across the spaces of the night Whisper of death. They do not die who leave their thought Imprinted on some deathless page. Themselves may pass; the spell they wrought Endures on earth from age to age. And thou, whose voice but yesterday Fell upon charmèd listening ears, Thou shalt not know the touch of years; Thou holdest time and chance at bay. Thou livest in thy living word As when its cadence first was heard. O gracious Poet and benign, Beloved presence! now as then Thou standest by the hearths of men. Their fireside joys and griefs are thine; Thou speakest to them of their dead, They listen and are comforted. They break the bread and pour the wine Of life with thee, as in those days Men saw thee passing on the street Beneath the elms - O reverend feet That walk in far celestial ways! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DESCRIPTION OF COOKHAM by AEMILIA (BASSANO) LANYER THE YOUNG CARPENTER by AL-RUSAFI TO A HUMMING BIRD by GLADYS ARNE AIR AN' LIGHT by WILLIAM BARNES LEAVES A-VALLEN by WILLIAM BARNES THE VIERZIDE CHAIRS by WILLIAM BARNES SWORD AND BUCKLER; OR, SERVING-MAN'S DEFENCE: TO THE READER by WILLIAM BASSE |