If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
......
Under my window-ledge the waters race,
Otters below and moor-hens on the top,
Run for a mile undimmed in Heaven's face
Then darkening through 'dark' Raftery's 'cellar' drop,
Run underground, rise in a rocky place
In Coole demesne, and there to finish up
Spread to a lake and drop into a hole.
What's water but the generated soul?
Upon the border of that lake's a wood
......
The sun descending in the west,
The evening star does shine;
The birds are silent in their nest,
And I must seek for mine.
The moon, like a flower,
In heaven's high bower,
With silent delight
Sits and smiles on the night.
Farewell, green fields and happy groves,
......
The pale, the cold, and the moony smile
Which the meteor beam of a starless night
Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle,
Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light,
Is the flame of life so fickle and wan
That flits round our steps till their strength is gone.
O man! hold thee on in courage of soul
Through the stormy shades of thy wordly way,
And the billows of clouds that around thee roll
......
WITH BLACKEST moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all:
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable-wall.
The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
Unlifted was the clinking latch;
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.
She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
......
I had spent recent years in mourning, since I had lost someone very dear;
As when pallid moon is hidden by clouds, and bright stars will not appear.
My job as a professor consumed me, and I was happy for its distractions,
Like a pastel rainbow that's created, from mist and sunshine interactions.
My loved ones tried to cheer me up, with their caring words and gestures,
In those whirlwind days, fraught with bright sunshine, roses and lectures.
While empty smiles were ofttimes present, sadness trailed like moments,
......
Tatters the clown had brought joy to so many;
But of intense personal joys, he had not any.
Hard luck trailed him, as it sometimes will do,
As dark clouds chase the sun, in skies of blue.
He faced various losses, that made him weep,
Deaths and monetary, by getting in too deep!
Children laughed gaily, to see Tatters coming,
As blooms in silver moonlight, most becoming!
......
I was a minister of the gospel, very happily living my life for the Lord,
Preaching the Word every Sunday, in the spirit of affinity and accord.
I always knew that I would preach, for I had been called in my youth,
To perpetually serve the will of God, while forever speaking His truth.
Like the lush gardens of springtime, are all abloom with fresh purpose,
Spreading joy with their presence, in a gold, green ritual that is ageless.
I lived an exceedingly busy life, doing work that was dear to my heart,
......
It was indeed an odyssey of excruciating
pain, reluctantly embarked upon
that led to an abrupt farewell
that got you ferried in splendour
by His majesty's service 'HMS Life Eternal'
by your guardian angels maneuvered
on her maiden voyage.
Congratulations for your newfound bliss and
world of non-existent tears.
You have meritoriously earned the Saviour's
......
As I look across America
What is it that I see?
A once strong and proud republic
That was all about opportunity...
As I look across the land
What is it that I see?
Hungry little children
With their arms stretched out to me...
......