I stood at the hedge as a hearse went by
And passed me along the way;
The sun broke in through a silver sky
And scattered a golden ray.
Should I offer a prayer for the passing dead,
For the hearts going burdened by;
With a human pity, a catholic dread
Of the tear, the sorrow, and sigh?
I too knew grief and the burdened heart,
Some knowledge of pain was mine;
Should I bow my head for another’s smart,
Should I make this simple sign?
So I wondered and thought as the hearse went by
With its poor dead corpse within;
But I turned aside to the opening sky –
“Such a feeling may once have been,
“But now” – for the impulse was gone, you see,
And death was no longer new;
“Like a fallen leaf from an autumn tree
He is dead; what is else to do?”
And there on the path as I turned around,
By the side of a thorn-tree root
An earthworm lay, crushed into the ground
By the heel of a passing boot.
Well, death and death; ‘t is an equal term
For the worm and the man to-day;
But I turned and buried the angle-worm
In a neighboring lump of clay.
(Philip Henry Savage)
More Poetry from Philip Henry Savage:
Philip Henry Savage Poems based on Topics: Man, Death & Dying, Autumn, Pain, Wisdom & Knowledge, Sadness, Sign & Symbol, Silver, Prayers, Emotions- Solitude (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- Anadyomene (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- The Hedgerow (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- "I Left The City" (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- Near The White Ledge, Sandwich, N. H. (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
- The Song-Sparrow (Philip Henry Savage Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Man Poems, Sadness Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Pain Poems, Wisdom & Knowledge Poems, Prayers Poems, Silver Poems, Sign & Symbol Poems, Autumn Poems, Emotions PoemsBased on Keywords: thorn-tree, earthworm, angle-worm