The Poems of Mackenzie Bell :: :: University of Virginia Library

BROWNING'S FUNERAL.

I. Venice, December 15th, 1889.
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“The body of Robert Browning was conveyed to a gondola which had the figure of an angel at the prow and a lion at the stern, and was covered with flowers. The relations and friends followed in gondolas across the lagoon, in the light of the setting sun, to the cemetery.”

Now “past they glide,” and bear the flower-wreathed bier
Across the soundless waters, cold and grey,

109

Ere Night falls, sable-vestured and austere,
And Day dies in one roseate flush away,
While they who follow, tearful, in the train
See wonted sights with unfamiliar eyes;—
Like dreams, amid the fevered sleep of pain,
Rich domes and frescoed palaces arise.
Yet haply, mixed with sorrow, dawns the thought
How fit such obsequies for him whose pen
Hath given a wondrous poem, passion-fraught,—
Breathing of love and Venice,—unto men:
And so hath added to her deathless glory
A shining scroll of pure and ageless story.

II. Westminster Abbey, December 31st, 1889.
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The music of Croft and Purcell was used “as the body was brought into Church, and for the processional parts of the burial service. This was followed by a ‘meditation,’ composed for the service by Dr. Bridge, the words from Elizabeth Barrett Browning's ‘He giveth His belovéd Sleep.’”

Croft's solemn music swells; then comes at last
The dim procession through the panelled choir;
And in the cloistral gloom, so still and vast,
Many who loved him listen. Higher and higher
Rise Purcell's dirge-like tones, Grief's very soul,
Yet soon “He giveth His belovèd Sleep”
Brings to our anguished hearts relief, control,
Memories of stately Florence, and the deep
Love-sacrament which bound him to his spouse

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Changeless through changeful years. And now in heaven
They meet in bliss—meet to renew their vows
Beyond the soiling touch of earthly leaven.
While England, as 'tis right, in sacred trust
Keeps through the centuries his hallowed dust.

See Browning's poem, entitled “In a Gondola.”