ESTEEM'D, admir'd, belov'd, -- farewell! Alas! what need hast thou of peace? Our bitterest winter tolls the knell, And tolls, and tolls, and will not cease. It tolls and tolls with iron tongue For empty lives and hearts unbless'd, And tolls for thee, whose heart was young, Whose life was stored with hope and rest. Thy meditative quaint replies, Cast out like arrows on the air, The humour in thy dark grey eyes, The wisdom in thy silver hair, -- Tho' these grow faint, shade after shade, As those who love thee droop and pass, Thy being was not wholly made To shrink like breath upon a glass. Thou with new graces didst maintain The old, outworn scholastic seat, Throned, simply, with an ardent train Of studious beauty round thy feet. Those girls, grown mothers soon, will teach Their sons to praise thy sacred name, Thy hand that taught their hands to reach The broader thought, the brighter flame. So thou, tho' sunk amidst the gloom That gathers round our reedy shore, Shalt with diffused light illume A thousand hearths unlit before. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO GOD THE FATHER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD SUMMER NIGHT-BROADWAY by LOUIS UNTERMEYER THE DEATH OF GRANT by AMBROSE BIERCE UNDER THE VIOLETS by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES CITIZEN OF THE WORLD by ALFRED JOYCE KILMER SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 50 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI |