Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A GRAVE IN HOLLYWOOD CEMETERY, RICHMOND, by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON Poet's Biography First Line: I read the marble-lettered name Last Line: What have we given him? Just a grave! | ||||||||
(J. R. T.) I READ the marble-lettered name, And half in bitterness I said: "As Dante from Ravenna came, Our poet came from exile -- dead." And yet, had it been asked of him Where he would rather lay his head, This spot he would have chosen. Dim The city's hum drifts o'er his grave, And green above the hollies wave Their jagged leaves, as when a boy, On blissful summer afternoons, He came to sing the birds his runes, And tell the river of his joy. Who dreams that in his wanderings wide, By stern misfortunes tossed and driven, His soul's electric strands were riven From home and country? Let betide What might, what would, his boast, his pride, Was in his stricken mother-land, That could but bless and bid him go, Because no crust was in her hand To stay her children's need. We know The mystic cable sank too deep For surface storm or stress to strain, Or from his answering heart to keep The spark from flashing back again! Think of the thousand mellow rhymes, The pure idyllic passion-flowers, Wherewith, in far gone, happier times, He garlanded this South of ours. Provencal-like, he wandered long, And sang at many a stranger's board, Yet 't was Virginia's name that poured The tenderest pathos through his song. We owe the Poet praise and tears, Whose ringing ballad sends the brave, Bold Stuart riding down the years -- What have we given him? Just a grave! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FIRST THANKSGIVING DAY [1621] by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON UNDER THE SHADE OF THE TREES [MAY 10, 1863] by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON ACCEPTATION by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON MYRRH-BEARERS by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON SIR WALTER'S HONOR by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON THE HERO OF THE COMMUNE by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON THE HERO OF THE GUN by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON THE LAST MEETING OF POCAHONTAS AND THE GREAT CAPTAIN [JUNE, 1616] by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON THE MYSTERY OF CRO-A-TAN by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON THE VISION OF THE SNOW by MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON |
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