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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Dead

By Jones Very (1813–1880)

I SEE them: crowd on crowd they walk the earth,—

Dry leafless trees no autumn wind laid bare;

And in their nakedness find cause for mirth,

And all unclad would winter’s rudeness dare:

No sap doth through their clattering branches flow,

Whence springing leaves and blossoms bright appear;

Their hearts the living God have ceased to know,

Who gives the springtime to th’ expectant year;

They mimic life, as if from him to steal

His glow of health to paint the livid cheek;

They borrow words for thoughts they cannot feel,

That with a seeming heart their tongue may speak:

And in their show of life more dead they live

Than those that to the earth with many tears they give.