Classic Poem

— A Poet's Requiem —

Bird-lovers, walking,
Down on earth's meadow,
Hush not your talking,
Nor keep your hearts in shadow,
The lark has not stopped singing,
But too high into the blue
She has gone winging
For the sound to fall to you.

Those echoes are not stopping,
You still have her song
Wonderfully dropping
Your earth-way along.
Up there, lark-lovers
Will lean down to see
How awhile she hovers,
Singing rapturously.

If a child is sobbing
For loss of one note,
Say, " Heaven is throbbing
To a new bird-throat. "
If the meadow-way is lonely
For those flashing wings,
" Hark! Hark! " — say only —
" The lark at heaven's gate sings! "