Page:Poems Eckley.djvu/29

UNWEPT TEARS. (A Pagan custom to put glass tears in the sepulchres of the dead as an offering.)

F all the time-worn customs,
 That from Pagan times we have;
Of all the quaint devices,
 That linger round the grave;
Of all the strange observances
 That superstition breeds,
The strangest seems, that with the dead
 Were buried these glass beads—

Now found—how strange! in ages fled,
 These mockeries sad of grief,
Glass tears were holy offerings made,
 To bring the heart relief.
Quaint tribute this! to the long-loved,
 The worshipped and the wept;
Close by their hearts these unshed tears
 Religiously were kept.