Pike County Ballads and Other Poems

IN A GRAVEYARD.

  In the dewy depths of the graveyard
    I lie in the tangled grass,
  And watch, in the sea of azure,
    The white cloud-islands pass.

  The birds in the rustling branches
    Sing gaily overhead;
  Grey stones like sentinel spectres
    Are guarding the silent dead.

  The early flowers sleep shaded
    In the cool green noonday glooms;
  The broken light falls shuddering
    On the cold white face of the tombs.

  Without, the world is smiling
    In the infinite love of God,
  But the sunlight fails and falters
    When it falls on the churchyard sod.

  On me the joyous rapture
    Of a heart's first love is shed,
  But it falls on my heart as coldly
    As sunlight on the dead.