Poems (Davidson)/Kindar Burial Service—Versified
KINDAR BURIAL SERVICE.
VERSIFIED.
We commend our brother to thee, O earth!To thee he returns, from thee was his birth!Of thee was he formed, he was nourished by thee;Take the body, O earth! the spirit is free.
O air! he once breathed thee, through thee he survived,And in thee and with thee his pure spirit lived;That spirit hath fled, and we yield him to thee;His ashes be spread, like his soul, far and free.
O fire! we commit his dear relics to thee,Thou emblem of purity, spotless and free;May his soul, like thy flames, bright and burning ariseTo its mansion of bliss, in the star-spangled skies.
O water! receive him; without thy kind aidHe had parched 'neath the sunbeams or mourned in the shade;Then take of his body the share which is thine,For the spirit hath fled from its mouldering shrine.