I OLD Evan Tom the sexton Was three-score years and ten, He'd put away more people Than he'd ever see again: Two hundred he had laid to rest In this benighted spot ... And a man who lives on funerals Has none too bright a lot. II Old Evan Tom the sexton Had done his work so well ... The parish had to buy a field From William Jones, 'The Bell': But Evan, in his wisdom, Had kept the last plot free— 'I'm following on some day,' he said, 'So here's the place for me...' III 'For fifty years I've tended them, From pauper up to clerk— And everything's been decent here ... No hauntings after dark: Three parsons and two squires, And ministers a few— But if I'm buried somewhere else I don't know what they'll do!' IV Old Evan Tom the sexton Was a man who kept his word: I'm sure he's up in the yew tree now, Like a wise, old, watchful bird— With his weather-eye fixed on the lot of them Watching them grave by grave— (And a double look at the squires perhaps To see that @3they@1 behave). V Some day the Angel Gabriel Shall take them unawares, The good ones and the bad ones, The ripe wheat and the tares ... And if one could be free then And quit of one's own affairs ... I'd give a lot to see old Tom Marching them up the stairs. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 27 by JAMES JOYCE A MINOR POET by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET SISTER MARIA CELESTE, GALILEO'S DAUGHTER, WRITES TO FRIEND by MADELINE DEFREES IMPELLED by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON SEPARATION by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON MERELY STATEMENT by AMY LOWELL |