Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BURIAL, by MARTHA DOWNER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BURIAL, by                    
First Line: Low on a plain
Last Line: Shepherd and don and wall.
Subject(s): Funerals; Burials


Low on a plain
At the foot of a high green hill
Lies a square of old walls
Builded to shelter the dead.

There, under the crosses, the weeds,
And the dust of the years,
Shepherd and don
Rest in quiet sleep.

Blue above them bends the sky they loved;
Warm the sun on 'dobe walls;
And, as when they strode the plain,
The bells of the flocks go tinkling by.

Dust of every land that they have known
Sweeps far and long across that plain,
And whirls and eddies and settles
Down on the sleepers under the sand.

Around those walls the warm, red Earth
Creeps higher year by year --
To fold at last within her all-absorbing breast
Shepherd and don and wall.





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