University of Virginia Library

THE POET'S GRAVE.

SECOND VERSION.

“He hath sung sweetly,” so she said, and came,
The Lady of the bays, to where he lay
Quiet beneath the evening shadows gray,
While in the west the sun was as a flame—
“He hath sung sweetly,” said the gentle dame,
And—half a tear fell sudden on the clay,
“He hath sung sweetly, Poetry must pay
This tribute to a soul of lofty aim;”
But as she said the words, behold, a form
Most strong, most beautiful, before her stood,
The Poet, risen from his coffin-wood,
Alive, heart beating, head conceiving, warm—
For—Beauty wept for him, for whom he died,
And therefore was he present at her side.