HIS IMMORTALITY

I saw a dead man's finer part

Shining within each faithful heart

Of those bereft. Then said I: “This must be

His immortality.”

I looked there as the seasons wore,

And still his soul continuously upbore

Its life in theirs. But less its shine excelled

Than when I first beheld.

His fellow-yearsmen passed, and then

In later hearts I looked for him again;

And found him — shrunk, alas! into a thin

And spectral mannikin.

Lastly I ask — now old and chill -

If aught of him remain unperished still;

And find, in me alone, a feeble spark,

Dying amid the dark.