The Poem

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Lie here, without a record of thy worth,
Beneath a covering of the common earth!
It is not from unwillingness to praise,
Or want of love, that here no Stone we raise;
More thou deserv'st; but this man gives to man,
Brother to brother, this is all we can.
Yet they to whom thy virtues made thee dear
Shall find thee through all changes of the year:
This Oak points out thy grave; the silent tree
Will gladly stand a monument of thee.
We grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past;
And willingly have laid thee here at last:
For thou hadst lived till every thing that cheers
In thee had yielded to the weight of years;
Extreme old age had wasted thee away,
And left thee but a glimmering of the day;
Thy ears were deaf, and feeble were thy knees,—
I saw thee stagger in the summer breeze,
Too weak to stand against its sportive breath,
And ready for the gentlest stroke of death.
It came, and we were glad; yet tears were shed;
Both man and woman wept when thou wert dead;
Not only for a thousand thoughts that were,
Old household thoughts, in which thou hadst thy share;
But for some precious boons vouchsafed to thee,
Found scarcely any where in like degree!
For love, that comes wherever life and sense
Are given by God, in thee was most intense;
A chain of heart, a feeling of the mind,
A tender sympathy, which did thee bind
Not only to us Men, but to thy Kind:
Yea, for thy fellow-brutes in thee we saw
A soul of love, love's intellectual law:—
Hence, if we wept, it was not done in shame;
Our tears from passion and from reason came,
And, therefore, shalt thou be an honoured name!


[Contents 1805]
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[Variant 1:] In the editions of 1807 to 1820 the following lines began the poem. They were withdrawn in 1827.

Lie here sequester'd:—be this little mound
For ever thine, and be it holy ground!

Lie here sequester'd:—be this little mound
For ever thine, and be it holy ground!

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[Variant 2:]

1827
Beneath the ... 1807

Beneath the ...

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[Variant 3:]

But ... MS.

But ...

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[Variant 4:]

1837
I pray'd for thee, and that thy end were past; 1807
I grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past; 1820

I pray'd for thee, and that thy end were past;

I grieved for thee, and wished thy end were past;

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[Variant 5:]

1837
For love, that comes to all; the holy sense,
Best gift of God, in thee was most intense;
1807

For love, that comes to all; the holy sense,
Best gift of God, in thee was most intense;

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[Variant 6:]

1837
The soul ... 1807

The soul ...

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[Contents 1805]
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