An Ancestor
Could I go back, where she lay dying
To find what instrument, I could
Scrutinise her dim assassins
And the recorded death, O if
Searching from empty stair to stair
In my house of sleep I found her
At last in a small end room, unlocked.
They pushed her feet first in a box,
Revengeful of her charmed life
Who had fallen on the electric rail,
Escaped from lions though sleeping,
And never was poisoned thoroughly.
A pauper's grave, they say, unknown ;
But her grave I find everywhere
There is no name or stone.
In microscopic print I read
She was both old and active,
Wept often, but never starved.
Everywhere is her grave, and safe
In sleep's mansion she lies young
After these long theatricals,
And all murderers undone.
Yet a murder once there was,
And I would weep, the only one,
If I could find where she lay dying.
Page(s) 2 (given as p.10)
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