Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/475

Just outside the cemetery,
In fantastic costumes airy;
Fancies dance in circles merry,
 Dance to music lightly gay.
But within a hush unbroken,
Thoughts that lie and live unspoken,
Thoughts that time can never waken
 From their silent lethargy.

There are graves and graves unnumbered,
That for years and years have slumbered,
Whether with white snows encumbered,
 Or with sunshine gilded o'er.
Snows their outer forms may whiten,
Sunshine may their sadness brighten,
But their burden naught can lighten—
 They are graves forevermore.

So beneath the smiles of gladness
Often lie the tombs of sadness;
Were it not a dream of madness,
 Their existence to deny.
Spent may be the storm-clouds weeping,
Under smiles and sunshine sleeping;
Two perchance one record keeping,
 Carved in stone and memory.

Long may we forget the hidden
Haunts that souls alone have trodden,
'Till some tolling bell unbidden
 Calls away to other years.
Back to dream in twilight pausing,
While the gates behind us closing,
Entrance unto all refusing,
 Rise like mighty barriers.

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