Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
America: Vols. XXV–XXIX. 1876–79.
Mount Auburn
By William Winter (1836–1917)A
Peace real, peace lasting, soul-enamoured peace,
The low soft-breathing dreaminess of death
Is in thee and around thee; yea, thou art
The type of that which only death can bring,
Quiet forgetfulness and long repose.
Repose as if in palaces; their sleep
So beauteous seems, so chaste, so calm, so still,
That one might almost envy them the bliss
Of such pure slumber; freed, forever freed,
From all the bitter grief of this cold world,
Its void pretences, shallow sympathies,
And crumbling friendships comfortless and cold.
What love betrayed—how many a broken heart,
What misery—what degradation sleeps
Beneath thy beauteous bosom! now at rest,
Where pain can weary not, nor passion enter in.