Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WHEN I AM DEAD by MARGUERITE BOWMAN CLARK

First Line: WHEN I AM DEAD, AND IN A WHITE HOT FLAME
Last Line: FROM THIS ONCE-BARREN BODY LIFE WILL SPRING.
Subject(s): DEATH; DEAD, THE;
When I am dead, and in a white hot flame
My body is reduced to earth again,
I ask not that you scatter far and wide
My ashes to the winds or to the tide.
But place them deep in some cool garden, where
The scents of rose and hyacinth perfume the air.
Let me lie there, where, when the freshening rain
Comes to refresh the arid earth again
And some sweet mating birds their rapture sing,
From this once-barren body life will spring.



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