WAKE
NOT
THE DEAD.
Wake not the Dead:—they bring but gloomy night
And cheerless desolation into day;
For in the grave who mouldering lay,
No more can feel the influence of light,
Or yield them to the sun’s prolific might;
Let them repose within their house of clay—
Corruption, vainly wilt thou e’er essay
To quicken:—it sends forth a pest’lent blight;
And neither fiery sun, nor bathing dew,
Nor breath of spring the dead can e’er renew.
That which from life is pluck’d, becomes the foe
Of life, and whoso wakes it waketh woe.
Seek not the dead to waken from that sleep
In which from mortal eye they lie enshrouded deep.
“WILT thou for ever sleep? wilt thou never more awake, my beloved? but henceforth repose for ever from thy short pilgrimage on
