WOULD I deck truth in fiction's graceful dress, Easy it were for votary of the Nine To find, in fair creation's loveliness, Apt emblems of a life and death like thine. The first, a streamlet scattering, though unseen, Its silent virtues, well might represent; The last, a light cloud, lovely and serene, View'd on the verge of a bright firmament. But these are poor comparisons.—The stream One summer's radiance may forever dry; The cloud, so beauteous in the sunset's gleam, May be forgotten in night's starless sky. Not so with thee; thy memory long shall live, Through starless nights, through dark and distant days; Thy virtues! 'twere more fitting they should give Impulse to @3imitation,@1 than to @3praise.@1 Indeed, they were not @3thine!@1 That gentleness; That patient resignation—kindness—truth; That candour—sympathy with all distress, And quiet cheerfulness, surpassing youth;— That self-forgetfulness—unbounded love: These were not thine, though thou wert lov'd for them; THOU knew'st they were but lent thee from above, This knowledge was their crown and diadem! Thou art no longer of this world: and even While yet its path of flowers and thorns was trod By thee, thy "conversation was in heaven," Where thy pure spirit now beholds its God! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WE PARTED IN SILENCE by JULIA CRAWFORD THE SORROWS OF WERTHER by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY ODES: BOOK 2: ODE 15. ON DOMESTIC MANNERS (UNFINISHED) by MARK AKENSIDE THE ROSE I GREW by JULIA S. ANDERSON THREE SONGS OF LOVE (CHINESE FASHION): 3. LOVE CALL by WILLIAM A. BEATTY THE DAY AFTER THE WAR by JAMES MADISON BELL PSALM 24. DOMINI EST TERRA by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE ELDER WOMAN'S SONG: 1, FR. KING LEAR'S WIFE by GORDON BOTTOMLEY |