Observations placeholder

Robert Stephen Hawker

We stood beside an open grave
By fair Morwenna's walls of grey,
Our hearts were hushed – the God who gave
Had called a sister soul away.
Hark! What wild tones around us float,
The chanting cuckoo's double note.
 
We uttered there the solemn sound,
'Man that is born from flesh of Eve,
The banished flower of Eden's ground,
Hath but a little time to live;'
And still, amid each pausing word,
The strange cry of that secret bird.
…............
A doctrine dwells in that deep tone;
A truth is borne on yonder wing,
Long years! Long years! The note is known
The blessed messenger of spring,
Thus saith that pilgrim of the skies
'Lo all which dieth shall arise'
 
Rejoice, though dull with wintry gloom
Love's sepulchre and sorrow's night,
The sun shall visit depth and tomb
A season of eternal light!
Like the glad bosom of the rose,
The mound shall burst – the grave unclose!
 
Yea, soothed by that unvarying song
What generations here have trod,
What winds have breathed that sound along,
Fit signal of the changeless God,
Hark yet again the echoes float,
The chanting cuckoo's double note.