826. In After Days
Rondeau

Henry Austin Dobson. b. 1840


IN after days when grasses high
O'er-top the stone where I shall lie,
  Though ill or well the world adjust
  My slender claim to honour'd dust,
I shall not question nor reply.

I shall not see the morning sky;
I shall not hear the night-wind sigh;
  I shall be mute, as all men must
      In after days!

But yet, now living, fain would I
That some one then should testify,
  Saying--'He held his pen in trust
  To Art, not serving shame or lust.'
Will none?--Then let my memory die
      In after days!

The Oxford Book of English Verse, HTML edition