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Madmoments: or First Verseattempts

By a Bornnatural. Addressed to the Lightheaded of Society at Large, by Henry Ellison

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THE GRAVE.

The Grave! what is there in that name to wake
Unpleasing thoughts, or image of decay?
The flowers shun it not, the sweet birds play
And sport around it, why should we then make
Our fancies busy thro' the Earth to break,
And see the fleshless bones that 'neath it may
Be crumbling into dust? oh rather say,
«See, from decay how soon new life doth take
Its natural Being, even so shall we!
A mighty teacher is the Grave; one hour
Spent in a Churchyard, from the world set free,
And all its nothingness, will teach thee more
Of life, and thy own Being's mystery,
Than the vain theories of man's booklore!