The dead abide with us! Though stark and cold <br />Earth seems to grip them, they are with us still: <br />They have forged our chains of being for good or ill; <br />And their invisible hands these hands yet hold. <br />Our perishable bodies are the mould <br />In which their strong imperishable will-- <br />Mortality's deep yearning to fulfil-- <br />Hath grown incorporate through dim time untold. <br /> <br />Vibrations infinite of life in death, <br />As a star's travelling light survives its star! <br />So may we hold our lives, that when we are <br />The fate of those who then will draw this breath, <br />They shall not drag us to their judgment bar, <br />And curse the heritage which we bequeath.<br /><br />Mathilde Blind<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-dead-6/
