Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/197

THE MONUMENT OF GREELEY His one last foe's insatiate hiss

On that benignant shade would follow!

Peace! while we shroud this man of men

Let no unhallowed word be spoken!

He will not answer thee again,

His mouth is sealed, his wand is broken.

Some holier cause, some vaster trust

Beyond the veil, he doth inherit:

O gently, Earth, receive his dust,

And Heaven soothe his troubled spirit!

THE MONUMENT OF GREELEY

more, dear mother Earth, we stand

In reverence where thy bounty gave

Our brother, yielded to thy hand,

The sweet protection of the grave!

Well hast thou soothed him through the years,

The years our love and sorrow number,—

And with thy smiles, and with thy tears,

Made green and fair his place of slumber.

Thine be the keeping of that trust;

And ours this image, born of Art

To shine above his hidden dust,

What time the sunrise breezes part

The trees, and with new life enwreathe

Yon head,—until the lips are golden,

And from them music seems to breathe

As from the desert statue olden.

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