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Poems (Edwards)/Name not the Dead

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For works with similar titles, see Name not the Dead.
4687621Poems — Name not the DeadMatilda Caroline Smiley Edwards
NAME NOT THE DEAD.
Name not the dead, O let their namesBe sacred as their dreamless rest;Or, if thou name them, let it beTo those who knew and loved them best;A stranger cannot feel the lossOf one, who was to him, unknown,A stranger cannot mourn like thee;Then let thy grief be only known.To those whose hearts have deeply feltAfflictions, painful as thine own.
Name not the dead who slumber lowBeneath the cold and silent clay,Breathe not their names before the vain,The heartless, careless and the gay; Keep thou their memories in thy heart,Too sacred for the lip of mirth,Too sacred to be breathed aloudBefore the heartless ones of earth;O name them only in thy homeAround the old familiar hearth.
Name not the dead, or if thou do,O name them not in strangers' ears,They will not, cannot, weep with you,They sigh not at your sorrowing tears;Name not the dead, O let their namesBe sacred as their dreamless rest;Or, if thou name them, let it beTo those who knew and loved them best.