Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Austin Dobson 1840–1921

The Forgotten Grave

Dobson-A

OUT from the City’s dust and roar,

You wandered through the open door;

Paused at a plaything pail and spade

Across a tiny hillock laid;

Then noted on your dexter side

Some moneyed mourner’s “love or pride;”

And so,—beyond a hawthorn-tree,

Showering its rain of rosy bloom

Alike on low and lofty tomb,—

You came upon it—suddenly.

How strange! The very grasses’ growth

Around it seemed forlorn and loath;

The very ivy seemed to turn

Askance that wreathed the neighbor urn.

The slab had sunk; the head declined,

And left the rails a wreck behind.

No name; you traced a “6,”—a “7,”—

Part of “affliction” and of “Heaven;”

And then, in letters sharp and clear,

You read—O Irony austere!—

“Tho’ lost to Sight, to Mem’ry dear.”