Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Gods Acre at Old Pemaquid
By AnonymousW
It stands, with headstones quaint with sculpture rude,
Its green turf thickly sown with dust of lives unknown,
Like withered leaves on autumn pathway strewed.
Nor mournful yew, by summer’s soft breath stirred;
The dawn, and twilight’s fall, never made musical
By carol clear of some sweet-throated bird.
Her flowery meads, and plains of waving corn,
But from the treacherous waves, their rocks and sparry caves,
Unto their rest were these sad sleepers borne.
And blue seas rippling o’er the pink-lipped shells.
Some green vale far away, where sweet-voiced waters play,
And the bee murmurs in the wild-flower’s bells.
And silent feet, and lives like rose leaves shed,
Thy dust shall yet arise, when from our earthly skies
Mists fade away and seas give up their dead.