Destroyers and Other Verses/Yesterday to the Grave They Silently Bore Him

by Henry Head

 

Yesterday to the grave they silently bore him,
Chanting no lament of the children of Zion,
Mass, nor prayer, nor word of farewell greeting
Said they at parting.

I, alone, his passionate servant unbidden,
Dare not veil my face nor cry for pity,
Dare not creep for a moment aside to bewail him,
Shaken with sorrow.

But, when the twilight thickens, with lamp unlighted,
Aching I lie on my lonely bed in the darkness,
Prone and swept by gusts of familiar weeping,
Toss until day-dawn.

February 21st, 1856.