Rose Aylmer's Grave
Rose Aylmer died in Calcutta on March 2nd, 1800, and is buried in the old South Park Street Cemetery.
AN English grave 'neath Indian skies,
Marked by a sullen stone:
And this is where Rose Aylmer lies,
Far, flowerless, and alone.
Rose Aylmer was a poet's love,
Sweet, beautiful, and young.
Her elegy, in melody,
The poet-lover sung.
About her grave no flowers grow,
No pleasant boughs are stirred:
No gentle sun, no quiet snow,
No English bee or bird.
The suns of springtime scorch the stone,
In summer, storm and rave
The winds that herald the cyclone,
The rains that lash the grave.
Rose Aylmer's sister-flowers should spring
In whitest bloom above:
The roses Landor could not bring,
Far distant from his love.
But now, a snake lies near her bed,
The crows perch on the rail,
A kite sweeps past, and overhead
The unclean vultures sail.
"Ah what avails the sceptred race,
Ah what the form divine!
What every virtue, every grace!
Rose Aylmer, all were thine.
Rose Aylmer, whom these wakeful eyes
May weep, but never see,
A night of memories and of sighs
I consecrate to thee."
Ah, why regret the gloomy hearse,
The land of banishment?
This is her grave: but Landor's verse
Rose Aylmer's monument.
Rose Aylmer, on thy namestone lies
Love's rose immortally,
The rose of memories and of sighs
Once consecrate to thee.