Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, COUNTRY FUNERAL, by AMY LEE SPENCER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

COUNTRY FUNERAL, by                    
First Line: This is the greatest day you ever knew
Last Line: You have known fame at last -- among the dead.
Subject(s): Country Life; Death; Funerals; Life; Prayer; Dead, The; Burials


This is the greatest day you ever knew;
For you, the neighbor-folk make holiday.
For you, the drying hay lies wet with dew.
Death has lent you his glory -- "Let us pray."

Two women cherished you -- in death and birth
And tallied up your score of blame and praise.
A meager man, you crawled along God's earth
Unfeted, till this greatest of your days.

You would be proud to see the darkened rooms,
The eyes that blur, the heads bowed through the hours;
And touch with wondering hands the strange wax blooms
The grave has conjured up instead of flowers.

In awkward clothes you never saw in life,
Friends stumble in with praises long unsaid --
The widow loves you more than did the wife --
You have known fame at last -- among the dead.





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