They say the dead love coffins fine
Because they see and see and see
Through dark velour and oak and pine
As pall and wood were crystalline
Unto their eyeless visionry,–
Because they see and know full well
That they forevermore must dwell
In tombed house, in coffined bed,—
They know it well though they be dead.
They say the dead love o'er their bones
Tall monuments and carven stones,
Because they see and see and see
With eyeless vision piercingly
Through moldy earth as we through sky,—
Because they know though deep they lie
Just what is writ high overhead
And how each reads who passes by,–
They know it well though they be dead.
And oh, they know they cannot change
Nor coffin nor tall carven stone
Nor what be writ if it be strange
Unto the truth which they alone
Do see and see and see and see
With piercing eyeless visionry,—
And every idle word that 's said
By those who pass high overhead,
They know it helplessly, though dead.
And each one knows if any other
Hath a finer tomb than he,
And each one hates his better brother
For each one knows how helplessly
He yet must lie in this one bed,—
And in each breast writhes Jealousy,
And Envy gnaws and gnaws and gnaws
Into each heart with needly jaws,—
One is so helpless lying dead!
And so the dead love coffins fine
And rich velour for shroud and pall,
And balm of myrrh and honeyed wine
And carven marbles white and tall
To stand unblenching over all,—
But each is jealous if another
Lie in finer funeral bed,
And never, never can we smother
Envy in the helpless dead.
See also Is There Life After Death? - 175 Books on DVDrom (Eschatology - Immortality) and The Mysteries of Death - 250 Books on DVDrom
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