Amenophis and Other Poems Sacred and Secular :: :: University of Virginia Library

There statesman, financier and poet,
Love, glory, ambition and guile,
Are laid 'neath their pompous inscriptions,
And the stranger says ‘Who?’ with a smile.

And some more proudly mock-modest
Rest under their names alone;
And all they will soon inherit
Is but the name and the stone.

There the passionate heart of de Musset
Sleeps itself tranquil and pure;
There Béranger, Heine, Bellini,
Lie 'mid the brilliant obscure;

He, whose melody echoes the music
Of the old Sicilian shore;
And they—in their lifetime too famous
To be famous for evermore.

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But from the white mausolea
The eye turns wearily soon,
Drawn by the dark fascination
Of the dreary Fosse Commune.

Had these no story of passion?
Had these no passion for fame,
No deeds for remembrance or glory,
Who lie without hillock or name?

They shovel them in by fifties,
And bid them lie down with a grin,
Who could not buy a ‘concession’—
Sons of starvation and sin!

Here at last, by Mortality's favour,
Fraternal and equal they lie:
And the child in vain seeks the mother
With its cross to crown her, and die.

—In this best of worlds, O my brothers,
Is surely something amiss!
Songs of advance and culture,
Is your ultimate triumph this?

Is the soul's heart-hunger abolish'd,
While agnostics their litany cry,
Or Science says, ‘matter to matter,’
With a smile that lurks in a sigh?—

160

The homage and incense of Paris
On the famous and wealthy are shed;
But love and sorrow are kneeling
O'er the undistinguish'd dead;

And the orphan sobs and wanders
O'er the dust that will hide it soon
From the wolfish strife for existence,
In the dreary Fosse Commune.