moreIn all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,20Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall existThy Image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claimThe growth, to be resolved to earth again,And, lost each human trace, surrendering upThine individual being, shalt thou go25To mix forever with the elements,To be a brother to the insensible rockAnd to the sluggish clod, which the rude swainTurns with his share, and treads upon. The oakShall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mold.30 Yet not to thine eternal resting-placeShalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wishCouch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie downWith patriarchs of the infant world-with kings, The powerful of the earth-the wise, the good,35Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,All in one mighty sepulcher. The hillsRock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, the valesStretching in pensive quietness between;The venerable woods-rivers that move40In majesty, and the complaining brooksThat make the meadows green; and, poured round all, Old Oceans gray and melancholy waste-Are but the solemn decorations allOf the great tomb of man. The golden sun, 45The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,Are shining on the sad abodes of death,Through the still lapse of ages. All that treadThe globe are but a handful to the tribesThat slumber in its bosom.-Take the wings50Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,Or lose thyself in the continuous woodsWhere rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,Save his own dashings-yet the dead are there:And millions in those solitudes, since first55The flight of years began, have laid them downIn their last sleep-the dead reign there alone.So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdrawIn silence from the living, and no friendTake note of thy departure? All that breathe60Will share thy destiny. The gay will laughWhen thou art gone, the solemn brood of carePlod on, and each one as before will chaseHis favorite phantom; yet all t...
