No white cloud sails the lonely sky, <br />Thro’ the gaunt trees no breezes sigh, <br />Thro’ the lush grass no fall of feet; <br />No song of bird in all the land, <br />But, floating faintly, dreamily, <br />The distant dirge of waves that beat <br />In discontent upon the sand. <br />Here, where all Nature seems aswoon, <br />Time, languid as a summer stream, <br />Drifts down the sweet soft afternoon; <br />And Death, discrowned of terror, brings <br />Surcease to souls that wake not soon, <br />And casts above Life’s fevered dream <br />Cool shadows of Immortal Wings. <br /> <br />Here, by the old graves overgrown, <br />A bare mound, without wreath or stone, <br />Marks where he sleeps ’mid grasses long, <br />Who sought not things that others seek, <br />Who fought in silence and alone, <br />Who in his weakness was so strong <br />And in his strength so weak. <br /> <br />The shining years shall glide and go, <br />The human tides shall ebb and flow, <br />And Love make sweet the days to be, <br />And Death make smooth the brow of pain, <br />But no such heart again shall glow, <br />And no such friend shall come to me <br />Thro’ all the cycles that remain. <br /> <br />Some pass and perish with their breath; <br />He liveth yet and quickeneth, <br />As scent of roses on the wind <br />Recalls the bygone summer’s day; <br />He leaves this side the seas of Death, <br />The fragrance of a noble mind: <br />He dies, but passes not away.<br /><br />George Essex Evans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-grave-by-the-sea/
