Classic Poem

ON THE DEATH OF A FRIEND .

" Another , and another still succeeds! "
And one by one are from us call'd away,
Friends — valued, loved, and cherish'd many a day,
For noble thoughts and honourable deeds.
Yet reckon not that we have leant on reeds,
Which broke to pierce us, when, without dismay,
In such we have reposed that trust and stay
For which, e'en from the grave, their virtue pleads.
The loved are not the lost! though gone before:
To live in others' hearts is not to die!
Worth thus embalm'd by faithful memory,
As dead — it were ungrateful to deplore;
Having outlived the grave is one proof more
That it was born for immortality!