Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/130

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They laid her in the Garden of the Dead. Such as a Christian burial-place should be Was that fair spot, where every grave was spread With flowers, and not a weed to spring was free; But the pure blossoms of the orange tree Dropt like a shower of fragrance, on the bier; And palms, the type of immortality, Planted in stately colonnades, appear, That all was verdant there throughout the unvarying year.

Nor ever did irreverent feet intrude Within that sacred spot; nor sound of mirth, Unseemly there, profane the solitude, Where solemnly committed earth to earth, Waiting the summons for their second birth, Whole generations in Death's peaceful fold Collected lay; green innocence, ripe worth, Youth full of hope, and age whose days were told, Compress'd alike into that mass of mortal mould.