Garlands upon his grave <br />And flowers upon his hearse, <br />And to the tender heart and brave <br />The tribute of this verse. <br /> <br />His was the troubled life, <br />The conflict and the pain, <br />The grief, the bitterness of strife, <br />The honor without stain. <br /> <br />Like Winkelried, he took <br />Into his manly breast <br />The sheaf of hostile spears, and broke <br />A path for the oppressed. <br /> <br />Then from the fatal field <br />Upon a nation's heart <br />Borne like a warrior on his shield!-- <br />So should the brave depart. <br /> <br />Death takes us by surprise, <br />And stays our hurrying feet; <br />The great design unfinished lies, <br />Our lives are incomplete. <br /> <br />But in the dark unknown <br />Perfect their circles seem, <br />Even as a bridge's arch of stone <br />Is rounded in the stream. <br /> <br />Alike are life and death, <br />When life in death survives, <br />And the uninterrupted breath <br />Inspires a thousand lives. <br /> <br />Were a star quenched on high, <br />For ages would its light, <br />Still travelling downward from the sky, <br />Shine on our mortal sight. <br /> <br />So when a great man dies, <br />For years beyond our ken, <br />The light he leaves behind him lies <br />Upon the paths of men.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/charles-sumner-birds-of-passage-flight-the-fourth/
