The Grave Of Bishop Ken

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Title:     The Grave Of Bishop Ken
Author: William Lisle Bowles [More Titles by Bowles]

On yonder heap of earth forlorn,
Where Ken his place of burial chose,
Peacefully shine, O Sabbath morn!
And, eve, with gentlest hush, repose.

To him is reared no marble tomb,
Within the dim cathedral fane;
But some faint flowers, of summer bloom,
And silent falls the wintry rain.

No village monumental stone
Records a verse, a date, a name--
What boots it? when thy task is done,
Christian, how vain the sound of fame!

Oh! far more grateful to thy God,
The voices of poor children rise,
Who hasten o'er the dewy sod,
"To pay their morning sacrifice."[1]

And can we listen to their hymn,
Heard, haply, when the evening knell
Sounds, where the village brow is dim,
As if to bid the world farewell!

Without a thought that from the dust
The morn shall wake the sleeping clay,
And bid the faithful and the just
Upspring to heaven's eternal day!

[Footnote 1: In allusion to Bishop Ken's well-known morning and evening hymns.]

[The end]
William Lisle Bowles's poem: Grave Of Bishop Ken

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