Poem by Lucy Maud Montgomery

With Tears They Buried You Today

With tears they buried you to-day,
But well I knew no turf could hold
Your gladness long beneath the mould,
Or cramp your laughter in the clay;
I smiled while others wept for you
Because I knew. 

And now you sit with me to-night
Here in our old, accustomed place;
Tender and mirthful is your face,
Your eyes with starry joy are bright­
Oh, you are merry as a song
For love is strong! 

They think of you as lying there
Down in the churchyard grim and old;
They think of you as mute and cold,
A wan, white thing that once was fair,
With dim, sealed eyes that never may
Look on the day. 

But love cannot be coffined so
In clod and darkness; it must rise
And seek its own in radiant guise,
With immortality aglow,
Making of death’s triumphant sting
A little thing. 

Ay, we shall laugh at those who deem 
Our hearts are sundered! Listen, sweet, 
The tripping of the wind’s swift feet 
Along the by-ways of our dream, 
And hark the whisper of the rose 
Wilding that blows. 

Oh, still you love those simple things,
And still you love them more with me;
The grave has won no victory;
It could not clasp your shining wings,
It could not keep you from my side,
Dear and my bride!

1. Companioned
2. In an Old Farmhouse
3. Rain along Shore
4. Harbor Moonrise
5. In an Old Town Garden

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