ODE TO THE DEAD.

Otago Witness, 5 December 1900, Page 68

ODE TO THE DEAD.

Live yet, ye dead ones — live for aye, "Who canst not die the while thy seed Groweth and flourisheth to sway O'er earth thy rule sublime, O Dead! Live yet, ye dead — fond memory Holds all within a sweet embrace Who sojourn here invisibly — The pillars of a human race! They are not gone from us, their brsath Stays yet with those who walk the carth — Lives yet in sons and daughters 'Eeath The changing spell of fickle Death. Asleep beneath the sod they lay, Cold, silent. Ah! who does not know That life is quickened out of clay? I/ive yet, ye are not dead — no ! no ! I Live yet in us, who in our turn Adown the stream of Time shall glide — And leave behind us who shall learn That the spring of Life m Death doth hide! Life is but change, and Death the key, Unlocking Time's kaleidoscope! The Past lives in its progeny — The Present, but surviving hope! Live yet — the strength, the patient faith, The truth and love's fertilityHope, joy, and peace dies not in death, Biit lasts out an Eternity! There is no death — Nature decrees The Past is the Present, the Future nought But th' repetition Reason sees — Reflections in Death's mirror caught. Live on for aye, ye dead! Time tolls Each passing hour, each fleeting year, The while the dust of living souls Assumes new forms in th' sojourn here! Live yet, ye living — Earth's blest store Of dead in thee, thou knowest not ! Live yet, ye dead, for evermore! Unseen and silent, unforgot. — H. A. COBBLEDICK.