Threnody

Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1836 (Portsmouth) – 1907 (Boston)



I

Upon your hearse this flower I lay
Brief be your sleep! You shall be known
When lesser men have had their day:
Fame blossoms where true seed is sown,
Or soon or late, let Time wound what it may.

II

Unvext by any dream of fame,
You smiled, and bade the world pass by:
But I--I turned, and saw a name
Shaping itself against the sky--
White star that rose amid the battle's flame!

III

Brief be your sleep, for I would see
Your laurels--ah, how trivial now
To him must earthly laurel be
Who wears the amaranth on his brow!
How vain the voices of mortality!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

33 sec read
37

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABA CDCDC EFEFE
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 557
Words 110
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

Thomas Bailey Aldrich was a poet novelist traveler and editor more…

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