George Essex Evans

A Grave by the Sea

No white cloud sails the lonely sky,
Thro’ the gaunt trees no breezes sigh,
Thro’ the lush grass no fall of feet;
    No song of bird in all the land,
But, floating faintly, dreamily,
The distant dirge of waves that beat
    In discontent upon the sand.
Here, where all Nature seems aswoon,
Time, languid as a summer stream,
Drifts down the sweet soft afternoon;
    And Death, discrowned of terror, brings
Surcease to souls that wake not soon,
And casts above Life’s fevered dream
    Cool shadows of Immortal Wings.

Here, by the old graves overgrown,
A bare mound, without wreath or stone,
Marks where he sleeps ’mid grasses long,
    Who sought not things that others seek,
Who fought in silence and alone,
Who in his weakness was so strong
    And in his strength so weak.

The shining years shall glide and go,
The human tides shall ebb and flow,
And Love make sweet the days to be,
    And Death make smooth the brow of pain,
But no such heart again shall glow,
And no such friend shall come to me
    Thro’ all the cycles that remain.

Some pass and perish with their breath;
He liveth yet and quickeneth,
As scent of roses on the wind
    Recalls the bygone summer’s day;
He leaves this side the seas of Death,
The fragrance of a noble mind:
    He dies, but passes not away.