Page:Where the Dead Men Lie.djvu/239

 A nation chants a threnody For heroes laid to rest: ’T is echoed back eternally From Earth's sob-swelling breast. Listen! the birds repeat a dirge For great souls passed beyond the verge.

When youth and maid in blither times, When Thoughts were less than Things, Brought in the May with joyous rhymes, Dances and carollings, The merry month seemed full of cheer; But, ah! ’t was borne upon a bier.

And so, to minds attuned with it, The eternal rhythm doth sound Lament for graces infinite Hid in the hollow ground: The most delicious draught of joy The World-Grief will with tears alloy.

Thus every hope destroyed in life In death has left its sign: The All hath conquered in the strife Though Each for ever pine: A moment means eternity, A sand-speck all infinity, And from this poor humanity We argue the Divine