Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IN MEMORIAM, by MIRIAM DEL BANCO


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IN MEMORIAM, by                    
First Line: Gone from the earth, forever and forever!
Last Line: And trace his name upon the hearts of men.
Subject(s): Death; Heaven; Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-1882); Memory; Dead, The; Paradise


Gone from the earth, forever and forever!
The flashing eye within whose crystal deep
Reflected shown the soul of love and gladness,
Is closed in dreamless and unbroken sleep;
The ear hears not our cry of pain and sorrow,
The broken heart-strings Death's cold hand has clutched,
The magic pen, dropped from the gifted fingers,
Lies where it fell—lies silent and untouched.

Robed is the earth he loved in spotless whiteness,
Gleam on the panes white buds by winter wrought:
Robed is a spotless soul in Heaven's splendor,
Gleam on his brow the crystal flow'rs of thought,
How can a soul so beautiful, forever
Be lost to earth and saddened hearts of men?
How can they think that hands so kind and tender
Will ne'er assist—will never bless again?

Soon, and once more will Time take from his quiver
The softly tinted hours of dewy spring;
Soon will the violet and crocus blossom;
Soon will a thousand tiny songsters sing,
But he whose eye once pierced the earth's brown bosom,
Watched how each struggling germ its path did make
Through darkness—e'en as men—will sleep in darkness
The dreamless sleep from which no man doth wake.

Fair will the summer be; the soft warm breezes
Through waving boughs will chase with laughter sweet,
And in still, moonlit nights, in flow'ry pathways,
Will flit and dance with silv'ry fairy feet;
But through them all, ne'er will he wait to listen;
Still, voices with the unreplying dead,
Heed not the silent chimes of countless lilies
That swing their spotless bells above his head.

And to that magic fairyland of beauty,
The land of dreamings and poetic lore
Where gleam his thoughts, like gems or dewy flowers,
His pen will ope' the portal nevermore;
Only the bloom once plucked and show'red upon us,
The scented, sparkling blossoms of his pen,
Are woven, like immortelles on a tombstone,
And trace his name upon the hearts of men.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net