Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
England: Vols. I–IV. 1876–79.

Lichfield

Epitaph

By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

Designed for a Monument in Lichfield Cathedral, at the Burial-place of the Family of Miss Seward

AMID these aisles, where once his precepts showed

The heavenward pathway which in life he trode,

This simple tablet marks a father’s bier,

And those he loved in life in death are near;

For him, for them, a daughter bade it rise,

Memorial of domestic charities.

Still wouldst thou know why, o’er the marble spread,

In female grace the willow droops her head;

Why on her branches, silent and unstrung,

The minstrel harp is emblematic hung;

What poet’s voice is smothered here in dust

Till waked to join the chorus of the just,—

Lo! one brief line an answer sad supplies,

Honored, beloved, and mourned, here Seward lies!

Her worth, her warmth of heart, let friendship say,—

Go seek her genius in her living lay.