Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume IX. Tragedy: Humor. 1904. | | | | Humorous Poems: II. Miscellaneous | | The Grave-Yard | | James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) |
| | From “A Fable for Critics”
LET us glance for a moment, ’t is well worth the pains, | |
| And note what an average grave-yard contains; | |
| There lie levellers levelled, duns done up themselves, | |
| There are booksellers finally laid on their shelves, | |
| Horizontally there lie upright politicians, | 5 |
| Dose-a-dose with their patients sleep faultless physicians, | |
| There are slave-drivers quietly whipt underground, | |
| There bookbinders, done up in boards, are fast bound, | |
| There card-players wait till the last trump be played, | |
| There all the choice spirits get finally laid, | 10 |
| There the babe that ’s unborn is supplied with a berth, | |
| There men without legs get their six feet of earth, | |
| There lawyers repose, each wrapt up in his case, | |
| There seekers of office are sure of a place, | |
| There defendant and plaintiff get equally cast, | 15 |
| There shoemakers quietly stick to the last, | |
| There brokers at length become silent as stocks, | |
| There stage-drivers sleep without quitting their box, | |
| And so forth and so forth and so forth and so on, | |
| With this kind of stuff one might endlessly go on; | 20 |
| To come to the point, I may safely assert you | |
| Will find in each yard every cardinal virtue; | |
| (And at this just conclusion will surely arrive, | |
| That the goodness of earth is more dead than alive). | | | | |
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