Poems (Procter)/The Unknown Grave
THE UNKNOWN GRAVE.
O name to bid us knowWho rests below,
No word of death or birth,
Only the grass's wave,
Over a mound of earth,
Over a nameless grave.
Did this poor wandering heart
In pain depart?
Longing, but all too late,
For the calm home again,
Where patient watchers wait,
And still will wait in vain.
In pain depart?
Longing, but all too late,
For the calm home again,
Where patient watchers wait,
And still will wait in vain.
Did mourners come in scorn,
And thus forlorn
Leave him, with grief and shame,
To silence and decay,
And hide the tarnished name
Of the unconscious clay?
And thus forlorn
Leave him, with grief and shame,
To silence and decay,
And hide the tarnished name
Of the unconscious clay?
It may be from his side
His loved ones died,
And, last of some bright band,
(Together now once more,)
He sought his home, the land
Where they had gone before.
His loved ones died,
And, last of some bright band,
(Together now once more,)
He sought his home, the land
Where they had gone before.
No matter,—limes have made
As cool a shade,
And lingering breezes pass
As tenderly and slow,
As if beneath the grass
A monarch slept below.
As cool a shade,
And lingering breezes pass
As tenderly and slow,
As if beneath the grass
A monarch slept below.
No grief, though loud and deep,
Could stir that sleep;
And earth and heaven tell
Of rest that shall not cease,
Where the cold world's farewell
Fades into endless peace.
Could stir that sleep;
And earth and heaven tell
Of rest that shall not cease,
Where the cold world's farewell
Fades into endless peace.