IN PATHETIC REMEMBRANCE, a poem

E. N. W.

Author of "David Harum"

A DYING man, so say you, wrote this book?
     Life is abundant here: from every page—
     Cheerful, courageous, philosophic, sage,
With no repining and no backward look—
It flows, as healthful as the mountain brook,
     That gathering scent of grape and saxifrage,
     Makes joyous pastime of its pilgrimage,
Fresh’ning each pebbly bend, each mossy crook.

The story journeys to forgetfulness?
     Truly: yet he who wrote, with failing breath,
     Ennobled human nature; for since he
     Who died in far Samoa by the sea,
There scarce hath come, through failure and success,
     A braver spirit to the gates of death!

"In Pathetic Remembrance" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Mine and Thine (1904).

"E. N. W." is Edward Noyes Westcott. For a LibriVox recording of this poem read by Sonja N. Bohm, visit "In Pathetic Remembrance" at Archive.org.