Nature's Epitaph
Nature's Epitaph
Original Text
William Herbert Carruth, Each in his own Tongue (New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1909): 70. 9700.d.146 Cambridge University Library
1Who knows where the graveyard is
2 Where the fox and the eagle lie?
3Who has seen the obsequies
4 Of the red deer when they die?
5With death they steal away
6 Out of the sight of the sun;
7Out of the sight of the living, they
8 Pay the debt and are done.
9No marble marks the place;
10 The common forest brown
11Covers them over with Quaker grace
12 Just where they laid them down.
13But a few years, if you see
14 In summer a deeper green
15Here and there, it is like to be
16 The spot where their bones have been.
17Thus, not more, to the poor dead year:
18 No grave, nor ghostly stone,
19But a greener life and a warmer cheer
20 Be the only sign that he's gone.
Publication Start Year
1908
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme