ELEGY BEFORE DEATH

There will be rose and rhododendron        

  When you are dead and underground;     

Still will be heard from white syringas    

  Heavy with bees,a sunny sound;         

Still will the tamararcks be raining       

  After the rain has ceased , and still  

Will there be robins in the stubble,       

  Gray sheep upon the warm green hill.   

Spring will not ail nor autumn falter;     

  Nothing will know that you are gone—  

Saving alone some sullen plowland          

  None but yourself sets foot upon;      

Saving the mayweed and the pigweed         

  Nothing will know that you are dead,— 

These, and perhaps a useless wagon           

  Standing beside some tumbled shed.     

Oh,there will pass with your great passing 

  Little of beauty not your own,—       

Only the light from common water,          

  Only the grace from simple stone!