| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Dead | | By Mathilde Blind (1841–1896) |
| | | THE DEAD abide with us. Though stark and cold | |
| Earth seem to grip them, they are with us still: | |
| They have forged our chains of being for good or ill, | |
| And their invisible hands these hands yet hold. | |
| Our perishable bodies are the mould | 5 |
| In which their strong imperishable will— | |
| Mortality’s deep yearning to fulfil— | |
| Hath grown incorporate through dim time untold. | |
| Vibrations infinite of life in death, | |
| As a star’s travelling light survives its star! | 10 |
| So may we hold our lives that, when we are | |
| The fate of those who then will draw this breath, | |
| They shall not drag us to their judgment bar | |
| And curse the heritage that we bequeath. | | | | |
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