 | Last poems including Afterglow and Beyond the sunset |  |
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A MEMORY
A gray sarcophagus beside a wallCrumbling and ivy-grown and gray with age,
O'er which a yew-tree, on whose wrinkled page
Was writ the lesson that Time writes for all,
Whispered of years remote and past recall;
Whispered of man's resistless heritage—
Death and decay, Oblivion's stern gauge,
And the long silences that round him fall.
But lo! Kind earth and gentle winds had filled
The empty shrine with largess! Tall grass grew
And gay flowers bloomed, where once the dead had lain;
Love built its nest there, and its rapture trilled;
A white lamb cropped the young leaves wet with dew,
And Life still lived where Life had once been slain!
| Last poems including Afterglow and Beyond the sunset | |