A single grave! -- the only one In this unbroken ground, Where yet the garden leaf and flower Are lingering around. A single grave! -- my heart has felt How utterly alone In crowded halls, where breathed for me Not one familiar tone; The shade where forest trees shut out All but the distant sky; -- I've felt the loneliness of night When the dark winds pass'd by; My pulse was quicken'd with its awe, My lip has gasp'd for breath; But what were they to such as this -- The solitude of death! A single grave! -- we half forget How sunder human ties, When round the silent place of rest A gather'd kindred lies. We stand beneath the haunted yew, And watch each quiet tomb; And in the ancient churchyard feel Solemnity, not gloom. The place is purified with hope, The hope that is of prayer; And human love, and heavenward thought, And pious faith are there. The wild flowers spring amid the grass; And many a stone appears, Carved by affection's memory, Wet with affection's tears. The golden chord which binds us all Is loosed, not rent in twain; And love, and hope, and fear, unite To bring the past again. But this grave is so desolate, With no remembering stone, No fellow-graves for sympathy -- 'Tis utterly alone. I do not know who sleeps beneath, His history or name -- Whether if, lonely in his life, He is in death the same: Whether he died unloved, unmourn'd, The last leaf on the bough; Or, if some desolated hearth Is weeping for him now. Perhaps this is too fanciful: -- Though single be his sod, Yet not the less it has around The presence of his God. It may be weakness of the heart, But yet its kindliest, best: Better if in our selfish world It could be less represt. Those gentler charities which draw Man closer with his kind -- Those sweet humanities which make The music which they find. How many a bitter word 'twould hush -- How many a pang 'twould save, If life more precious held those ties Which sanctify the grave! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BEN KARSHOOK'S WISDOM by ROBERT BROWNING LOVE'S CAUTION by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES SONNET: TO HIS LUTE by WILLIAM DRUMMOND OF HAWTHORNDEN THE SOULS OF THE SLAIN by THOMAS HARDY THE GRASSHOPPER; TO MY NOBLE FRIEND MR. CHARLES COTTON by RICHARD LOVELACE |