| Andrew Macphail, comp. The Book of Sorrow. 1916. | | | I. Serenity
‘Do we indeed desire the dead’ | | By Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | From ‘In Memoriam’
DO we indeed desire the dead | |
| Should still be near us at our side? | |
| Is there no baseness we would hide? | |
| No inner vileness that we dread? | |
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| Shall he for whose applause I strove, | 5 |
| I had such reverence for his blame, | |
| See with clear eye some hidden shame | |
| And I be lessen’d in his love? | |
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| I wrong the grave with fears untrue: | |
| Shall love be blamed for want of faith? | 10 |
| There must be wisdom with great Death: | |
| The dead shall look me thro’ and thro’. | |
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| Be near us when we climb or fall: | |
| Ye watch, like God, the rolling hours | |
| With larger other eyes than ours, | 15 |
| To make allowance for us all. | | | | |
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