Oh, Friend! for ever loved, for ever dear! <br />What fruitless tears have bathed thy honour'd bier! <br />What sighs re'echo'd to thy parting breath, <br />Wilst thou wast struggling in the pangs of death! <br />Could tears retard the tyrant in his course; <br />Could sighs avert his dart's relentless force; <br />Could youth and virtue claim a short delay, <br />Or beauty charm the spectre from his prey; <br />Thou still hadst lived to bless my aching sight, <br />Thy comrade's honour and thy friends delight. <br />If yet thy gentle spirit hover nigh <br />The spot where now thy mouldering ashes lie, <br />Here wilt thou read, recorded on my heart, <br />A grief too deep to trust the sculptor's art. <br />No marble marks thy couch of lowly sleep, <br />But living statues there are seen to weep; <br />Affliction's semblance bands not o'er thy tomb, <br />Affliction's self deplores thy youthful doom. <br />What though thy sire lament his failing line, <br />A father's sorrows cannot equal mine! <br />Though none, like thee, his dying hour will cheer, <br />Yet other offspring soothe his anguish here: <br />But who with me shall hold thy former place? <br />Thine image what new friendship can efface? <br />Ah, none! - a father's tears will cease to flow, <br />Time will assuage an infant brother's woe; <br />To all, save one, is consolation known, <br />While solitary friendship sighs alone.<br /><br />George Gordon Byron<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/epitaph-on-a-beloved-friend/
