Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, POST MORTEM, by WALT MASON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POST MORTEM, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Man goes his way, and cuts a narrow
Last Line: To pay for pomp and fuss and foolish pride.
Subject(s): Death; Mortality; Dead, The


MAN goes his way, and cuts a narrow swath; day after day, we see him in the
broth. He cuts no ice, displays no wondrous worth, gets married twice, at last
falls off the earth. And when he dies, to Mother Earth goes back, with streaming

eyes we drape ourselves in black. We sighing stand around his sombre pall, and
hire a band to play the march from "Saul." His kindred wail, "All pomp he's been

denied, but now the tail must travel with the hide. We'll do things right,
regardless of expense, now this poor wight has up and journeyed hence. We'll go

in debt, to give this orgy class, hire steeds of jet, their harness decked with

brass, the smoothest hearse to haul the honored gent, a boosting verse upon his

monument." The dead man sleeps, as kindly Nature wills; the widow weeps, and
slaves to pay the bills. She bends her shape o'er tubs of steaming clothes, to
pay for crape and sable furbelows. She's in a swamp of trouble, deep and wide,
to pay for pomp and fuss and foolish pride.





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