Our
father’s dust is left alone
And silent under other snows:
There in due time the woodbine blows,
The
violet comes, but we are gone.
No
more shall wayward grief abuse
The genial hour with mask and mime;
For change of place, like growth of time,
Has
broke the bond of dying use.
Let
cares that petty shadows cast,
By which our lives are chiefly proved,
A little spare the night I loved,
And
hold it solemn to the past.
But
let no footstep beat the floor,
Nor bowl of wassail mantle warm;
For who would keep an ancient form
Thro’
which the spirit breathes no more?
Be
neither song, nor game, nor feast;
Nor harp be touch’d, nor flute be blown;
No dance, no motion, save alone
What
lightens in the lucid east
Of
rising worlds by yonder wood.
Long sleeps the summer in the seed;
Run out your measured arcs, and lead
The
closing cycle rich in good.