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Home  »  The Spirit of Man: An Anthology  »  James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916.

From Ode recited at the Harvard Commemoration 1865

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)

.. SALUTE the sacred dead,

Who went and who return not.—Say not so!..

We rather seem the dead, that stayed behind.

Blow, trumpets, all your exultations blow!

For never shall their aureoled presence lack ..

They come transfigured back,

Secure from change in their high-hearted ways,

Beautiful evermore, and with the rays

Of morn on their white shields of Expectation.