Page:Poems Toke.djvu/116

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But numbers there for ages past
 Have slumbered side by side,
Till all that memory knows at last
 Is—once they lived and died.

In morning's prime, in manhood's day,
 In life's calm sunset hour,
They one by one have passed away,—
 Earth knows their place no more:
For some, 'tis true, in many a breast
 Still love and memory glow;
The last who there in silence rest,
 Alone remembered now.

'Tis sad,—'tis sad to trace again
 The names recorded there,
And feel how swiftly death and pain
 Blight all on earth most fair;
To think our home, in bygone years,
 They too have called their own;
And trod life's path of smiles and tears,
 Where we now follow on.

Burst forth, thou sunbeam glad and gay!
 Shine on the marble tomb!
Perchance thy light may chase away
 My spirit's gathering gloom;
A weight seems crushing down my heart,
 As here I lowly bow,
And think how soon life's joys depart,—
 Flowers withering as they blow.