| |
| IN the old churchyard at Fredericksburg | |
| A gravestone stands to-day, | |
| Marking the place where a grave has been, | |
| Though many and many a year has it seen | |
| Since its tenant mouldered away. | 5 |
| And that quaintly carved old stone | |
| Tells its simple tale to all:— | |
| “Here lies a bearer of the pall | |
| At the funeral of Shakespeare.” | |
| |
| There in the churchyard at Fredericksburg | 10 |
| I wandered all alone, | |
| Thinking sadly on empty fame, | |
| How the great dead are but a name,— | |
| To few are they really known. | |
| Then upon this battered stone | 15 |
| My listless eye did fall, | |
| Where lay the bearer of the pall | |
| At the funeral of Shakespeare. | |
| |
| Then in the churchyard at Fredericksburg | |
| It seemed as though the air | 20 |
| Were peopled with phantoms that swept by, | |
| Flitting along before my eye, | |
| So sad, so sweet, so fair; | |
| Hovering about this stone, | |
| By some strange spirit’s call, | 25 |
| Where lay a bearer of the pall | |
| At the funeral of Shakespeare. | |
| |
| For in the churchyard at Fredericksburg | |
| Juliet seemed to love, | |
| Hamlet mused, and the old Lear fell, | 30 |
| Beatrice laughed, and Ariel | |
| Gleamed through the skies above, | |
| As here, beneath this stone, | |
| Lay in his narrow hall | |
| He who before had borne the pall | 35 |
| At the funeral of Shakespeare. | |
| |
| And I left the old churchyard at Fredericksburg; | |
| Still did the tall grass wave, | |
| With a strange and beautiful grace, | |
| Over the sad and lonely place, | 40 |
| Where hidden lay the grave; | |
| And still did the quaint old stone | |
| Tell its wonderful tale to all:— | |
| “Here lies a bearer of the pall | |
| At the funeral of Shakespeare.” | 45 |
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