In Memory

Sun (Christchurch), Volume IV, Issue 1164, 3 November 1917, Page 7 (Supplement)

In Memory

I Five and twenty years have gone Since old William Pollexfen Laid his strong bones down in death, By his wife Elizabeth, In the grey stone tomb he made. Some five years ago they laid In that tomb by him and her, His son George, the astrologer, And Masons drove from miles away To scatter the Acacia spray Upon a melancholy man Who had ended where his breath began. Many a son and daughter lies Far from the customary skies, p] The Mall and Eade's grammar school, |0 In London or in Liverpool; |jj But where is laid the sailor John? Ej That so many lands had known: Uj Quiet lands or unquiet seas Dj Where the Indians trade or Japanese. E] He never found his rest ashore [{] Moping for one voyage more, k] Where have they laid the sailor John? fjj And yesterday the youngest son, Dj A humorous, unambitious man, Dj Was buried near the astrologer; |j] And are we now in the tenth year? y Since he, who had been contented long, S A nobody in a great throng, H Decided he would journey home, q] Now that his fiftieth year had come, [}i And "Mr Alfred" be again Dj Upon the lips of common men Dj Who carried in their memory p] His childhood an<£ his family. fO At all these death-beds women heard rjj A visionary white sea-bird Ej Lamenting that a man should die: K And with that cry I have raised my cry. I —By W. B. YEATS