Landon in The Literary Gazette 1824/Stanzas 1

by Letitia Elizabeth Landon

For works with similar titles, see Fragment (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).

For works with similar titles, see Stanzas (Letitia Elizabeth Landon).

Literary Gazette, 10th January, 1824, Pages 27-28

STANZAS.
Is it not so?

It is a green and sunny place
    That silent tomb,
And over it, with summer grace,
    The wild flowers bloom;

And shadily that willow-tree
    Floats on the air;
But lift up the smooth sod, and see
    Its dark things bare:

A blackening corpse, a rank, cold smell,
    Discoloured bones;
And slimy earthworms are what dwell
    In the damp stones.

And look thus on the human face—
    Is it not fair?
Yet look within the heart, and trace
    Such foulness there.

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