Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STANZAS - THE TOMB by ELIZA COOK

First Line: FEW YEARS AGO I SHUNNED THE TOMB
Last Line: TO LEAD ME TO THE LOVED AGAIN.
Subject(s): GRAVES; TOMBS; TOMBSTONES;
Few years ago I shunned the tomb,
And turned me from a tablet-stone;
I shivered in the churchyard gloom,
And sickened at a bleaching bone.

Then all were round my warm young heart --
The kindred tie -- the cherished form;
I knew not what it was to part,
And give them to the dust and worm.

But soon I lost the gems of earth,
I saw the dearest cold in death,
And sorrow changed my joyous mirth
To searing drops and sobbing breath.

I stood by graves all dark and deep,
Pale, voiceless, wrapt in mute despair;
I left my soul's adored to sleep
In stirless, dreamless slumber, there.

And now I steal at night to see
The soft, clear moonbeams playing o'er
Their hallowed beds, and long to be
Where all most prized have gone before.

Now I can calmly gaze around
On osiered heaps, with yearning eye,
And murmur o'er the glassy mound --
"'Tis a glorious privilege to die."

The grave hath lost its conquering might,
And death its dreaded sting of pain,
Since they but ope the path of light
To lead me to the loved again.



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