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EDGAR POE'S GRAVE.
——
Chill the nook beside the barren street,
Walled from man but open to the sky;
O'er the stone the cloudy shadows fleet,
Clings the mist a pallid winding sheet;
Death and life have met eternally.
Still the pageant troops before his eye,
Who abode in starlit mystery.
Wayward spirit of the haunted glen,
Tuneful wanderer of the midnight blast,
Doomed awhile to dwell with mortal men,
Singing phantom kindred as they passed;
Airy harp with notes beyond our ken,
Subtle, pure — our one unearthly pen;
Come what may, the foremost and the last!
— W. H. Babcock.
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Notes:
William Henry Babcock (1849-1922) was an American novelist and poet. He was a graduate of Columbia University Law School (now George Washington University Law School), practiced law in Washington DC, and sometimes worked as a journalist. He is buried in Chesterfield Cemetery in Centreville, MD. His birthday is sometimes noted as January 19, 1849, although his tombstone specifies January 1. He may have adjusted it as a personal connection to Poe.
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[S:0 - SA, 1880] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - Poe's Grave (W. H. Babcock, 1880)