Page:Poems Eckley.djvu/65

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"Good-bye" at the Gate.
51
Can worldly pomp and waving plume,
With hired mourners to the tomb,
Keep up the rank of the stricken dead,
Where prince and beggar are equal laid,
       When each has said "Good-bye?"

Thus parted we,—perchance awhile
To muse with graver brow and smile—
Yet as the plum'd hearse past the gate,
With one more look compassionate,
       She softly said "Good-bye."

"Good-bye! Good-bye!" I answered back;
Earth's two extremes meet on life's track,
I've shut the gate on the loved, the pure,
Death opens his for one soul more,
       And each has said "Good-bye."

Bath; March 24th, 1862.