viewing pleasure, let's do some death poems, always a favorite with
the dead crowd.
I saw this one on a gravestone a long time ago:
CHILDREN BEHOLD AS YOU PASS BY,
AS YOU ARE NOW, SO ONCE WAS I.
AS I AM NOW, SO SHALL YOU BE,
SO PREPARE FOR DEATH, AND FOLLOW ME.
Here's another little ditty from childhood:
NEVER LAUGH WHEN A HEARSE GOES BY,
FOR YOU MAY BE THE NEXT TO DIE.
THEY WRAP YOU UP IN A BIG WHITE SHEET,
AND BURY YOU DOWN ABOUT SIX FEET DEEP.
ALL GOES WELL FOR ABOUT A WEEK,
AND THEN YOUR COFFIN STARTS TO LEAK.
WORMS CRAWL IN AND WORMS CRAWL OUT,
AND WORMS PLAY PINOCLE ON YOUR SNOUT.
ONE LITTLE WORM WAS NOT SO SHY,
HE CLIMBED IN YOUR EAR AND OUT YOUR EYE.
We're on a roll now, next some Edgar Allen Poe. Always a crowd pleaser.
Although Edgar wrote all those scary stories, I think he was a real softy,
and a romantic guy at heart. How else could he have written the
beautiful ANNABEL LEE?
It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.
She was a child and I was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes! - that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.
For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.
NEXT PAGE, MORE HAPPY THOUGHTS!
