In Memoriam A. H. H.: 39. Old warder of these buried bones

Portrait of Alfred Lord Tennyson
Alfred Lord Tennyson 1809–1892

Old warder of these buried bones, And answering now my random stroke With fruitful cloud and living smoke, Dark yew, that graspest at the stones And dippest toward the dreamless head, To thee too comes the golden hour When flower is feeling after flower; But Sorrow--fixt upon the dead, And darkening the dark graves of men,-- What whisper'd from her lying lips? Thy gloom is kindled at the tips, And passes into gloom again.

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