Poems Sigourney 1827/"Wherefore I praised the Dead more than the Living."

by Lydia Sigourney

"WHEREFORE I PRAISED THE DEAD, MORE THAN THE LIVING."
King Solomon.

They dread no storm that lowers,
    No perish'd joys bewail,
They pluck no thorn-clad flowers,
    Nor drink of streams that fail,
There is no tear-drop in their eye,
    No change upon their brow,
The placid bosom heaves no sigh,
    Though all earth's idols bow.

Who are so greatly blest?—
    From whom hath sorrow fled?—
Who share such deep, unbroken rest
    While all things toil?——The dead!
The holy dead!—why weep ye so
    Above the sable bier?—
Thrice blessed!—they have done with wo,
    The living claim the tear.

Go to their sleeping bowers,
    Deck their low couch of clay
With early spring's uncolour'd flowers,
    And when they fade away,
Think of the amaranthine wreath
    The bright bowers never dim,
And tell me why thou fly'st from death
    Or hid'st thy friends from him?—

We dream but they awake,
    Dark visions mar our rest,
Through thorns and snares our way we take,
    And yet we mourn the blest!
For those who throng the eternal Throne
    Lost are the tears we shed,—
They are the living,—they alone
    Whom thus we call the dead.

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