HUSH! not a sound! no whisper! no demur! No restless motion -- no intrusive stir! But with staid presence and a quiet breath, One solemn moment dedicate to Death! [@3A pause.@1 For now no fancied miseries bespeak The panting bosom, and the wetted cheek; No fabled Tempest, or dramatic wreck, No Royal Sire washed from the mimic deck, And dirged by Sea Nymphs to his briny grave! Alas! deep, deep beneath the sullen wave, His heart, once warm and throbbing as your own, Now cold and senseless as the shingle stone; His lips, so eloquent, choked up with sand; The bright eye glazed, -- and the impressive hand Idly entangled with the ocean weed -- Full fathom five, a FATHER lies indeed! Yes! where the foaming billows rave the while Around the rocky Ferns and Holy Isle, Deaf to their roar, as to the dear applause That greets deserving in the Drama's cause, Blind to the horrors that appal the bold, To all he hoped, or feared, or loved, of old -- To love -- and love's deep agony, a-cold; He, who could move the passions, moved by none, Drifts an unconscious corse. -- Poor Elton's race is run! Weep for the dead! Yet do not merely weep For him who slumbers in the oozy deep: Mourn for the dead! -- yet not alone for him O'er whom the cormorant and gannet swim; But, like Grace Darling in her little boat, Stretch out a saving hand to those that float -- The orphan Seven -- so prematurely hurled Upon the billows of this stormy world, And struggling -- save your pity take their part -- With breakers huge enough to break the heart! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SWAMP ANGEL by HERMAN MELVILLE LUCY (5) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH MEMORY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS WESTERN MORNING by WILLIMINA L. ARMSTRONG TO SLEEP, WHEN SICK OF A FEVER by PHILIP AYRES AT SABBATH DOWN by LOUISA SARAH BEVINGTON PSALM 19. [THE HEAVENS ABOVE AND THE LAW WITHIN] by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |