Classic and Contemporary Poetry
REST IN THE GRAVE! BUT REST IS FOR THE WEARY, by ANONYMOUS First Line: Rest in the grave! But rest is for the weary Last Line: Have slain the unborn flower and new-fledged bird Subject(s): Birds;death;graves; "dead, The;tombs;tombstones; | ||||||||
REST in the grave! but rest is for the weary, And her slight limbs were hardly girt for toil; Rest for lives worn out, deserted, dreary, Which have no brightness left for death to spoil. We yearn for rest when power and passion wasted Have left to memory nothing but regret; She sleeps, while life's best pleasures, all untasted, Had scarce approached her rosy lips as yet. Her childlike eyes still lacked their crowning sweetness, Her form was ripening to more perfect grace; She died with the pathetic incompleteness Of beauty's promise on her pallid face. What undeveloped gifts, what powers untested, Perchance with her have passed away from earth; What germs of thought in that young brain arrested May never grow and quicken and have birth! She knew not love, who might have loved so truly, Though love-dreams stirred her fancy, faint and fleet; Her soul's ethereal wings were budding newly, Her woman's heart had scarce begun to beat. We drink the sweets of life, and drink the bitter, And death to us would almost seem a boon; But why to her, for whom glad life were fitter, Should darkness come ere day had reached its noon? No answer, -- save the echo of our weeping Which from the woodland and the moor is heard, Where, in the springtime, ruthless storm-winds, sweeping, Have slain the unborn flower and new-fledged bird. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SITTING BULL IN SERBIA by WILLIAM JAY SMITH TO THE EXCELLENT ORINDA by PHILO PHILIPPA EPIGRAM OCCASIONED BY CIBBER'S VERSES IN PRAISE OF NASH: 1 by ALEXANDER POPE THE GIFT OF THE GODS by JOHN GODFREY SAXE TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH by ALFRED TENNYSON BEAU NASH by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER BEAU NASH AND THE ROMAN, OR THE TWO ERAS by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER TIS A LITTLE JOURNEY by ANONYMOUS |
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