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Down upon her coffin throw Branch of never dying bay:* Years to come that sprig will grow, Never can it know decay! Emblem of immortal life, Though unto the tomb it wed, It will rise in glory rife, Like the silent early dead.

Now her humble grave we deck With the flow'rets of the field; They man's vanity will check, And in death a moral yield. For, within God's Holy Book, Of their lives we oft have read; Can, we then, on the wild-birds look, And forget—the early dead?

Ivy true, and cowslips† pale, Place upon her silent tomb; Snow-drops, too, will tell the tale, That she died in Spring-tide bloom. Plant a willow by her grave, Mournful shadows it will spread, As its weeping branches wave Slowly o'er the early dead.


 * "The Pansies peaked with jet" is one of the flowers placed by Milton on the bier of Lycidas.

† "The violet is an emblem of faithfulness, probably from its blossoms being generally blue. I have ventured to extend this emblematic character to the white variety, the flowers of which are larger and more fragrant, and thus appropriated it to the dead; and surely its timid beauty and delicate odour seem to render it worthy of this mournful distinction."—The gifted authoress of The Moral of Flowers.


 * "Bay possesses, in a remarkable degree, the power of resuscitation long after it has appeared dead; if left undisturbed it will put forth leaves again and assume its pristine vigour; on this account a sprig of bay was formerly thrown into the coffin at the time of interment, being considered a striking symbol of the resurrection of the dead."

† Milton strews the hearse where Lycid lies, with "cowslips wan that hang the pensive head."