Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Wandering Along a Waste
By Richard Henry Stoddard (18251903)[From Poems. Complete Edition. 1880.]
W
Where once a city stood,
I saw a ruined tomb,
And in that tomb an urn:
Without a name, or date,
And in its hollow depth
A little human dust.
“In this forgotten urn?
And where this waste now lies
What city rose of old?”
It was, and is no more.
Gone like a wind that blew
A thousand years ago.
Will be the end of all;
For as it passed away
The Universe will pass,
Some ruined World like ours;
A solitary urn
Full of the dust of men.