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Poems

By W. C. Bennett: New ed
  

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MOTHERWELL'S GRAVE.

“It is painful to be obliged to state, that Motherwell's grave cannot be discovered without the assistance of a guide, not being marked by even a headstone.”—M`Conechy's Memoir of Motherwell.

A memory writ in tide-swept sands,—a name
Graven on running waters, was the doom
That, from the dusky portals of the tomb,
Thou sawest, Motherwell, await thy fame;
And who thy dark imaginings dare blame?
Upon thy nameless grave the wild-flowers bloom;
Nature, the resting-place of him by whom,
Unto the city where he dwelt, there came
A glory and a sanctity, alone
Hath deck'd with beauty. Oh, to Glasgow shame,
That to her poet hath not given a stone,
Graving her proudest honour in her claim
To him whose memory hath a life sublime,
Enlink'd unto the sweetest tears of time.
1850.