Landon in The Literary Gazette 1830/The Legacy of the Roses
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Literary Gazette, 21st August, 1830, Page 548
THE LEGACY OF THE ROSES.†
Oh! plant them above me, the soft, the bright,
The touched with the sunset's crimson light,
The warm with the earliest breath of spring,
The sweet with the sweep of the west wind's wing;
Let the green bough and the red leaf wave—
Plant the glad rose-tree upon my grave.
Why should the mournful willow weep
O'er the quiet rest of a dreamless sleep?—
Weep for life, with its toil and care,
Its crime to shun, and its sorrow to bear;
Let tears and the sign of tears be shed
Over the living, not over the dead!
Plant not the cypress nor yet the yew;
Too heavy their shadow, too gloomy their hue,
For one who is sleeping in faith and in love,
With a hope that is treasured in heaven above;
In a holy trust are my ashes laid—
Cast ye no darkness, throw ye no shade.
Plant the green sod with the crimson rose,
Let my friends rejoice o'er my calm repose;
Let my memory be like the odours they shed,
My hope like their promise of early red;
Let strangers, too, share in their breath and their bloom—
Plant ye the bright roses over my tomb!
L. E. L.
† A person who died at Barnes left an annual sum to be laid out in roses planted on his grave: authority, Mr. Crofton Croker.