The Burial

1904(C. F. Rhodes, buried in the Matoppos, April 10, 1902)

When that great Kings return to clay,

Or Emperors in their pride,

Grief of a day shall fill a day,

Because its creature died.

But we -- we reck on not with those

Whom the mere Fates ordain,

This Power that wrought on us and goes

Back to the Power again.



Dreamer devout, by vision led

Beyond our guess or reach,

The travail of his spirit bred

Cities in place of speech.

So huge the all-mastering thought that drove --

So brief the term allowed --

Nations, not words, he linked to prove

His faith before the crowd.



It is his will that he look forth

Across the world he won --

The granite of the ancient North --

Great spaces washed with sun.



There shall he patient take his seat

(As when the Death he dared),

And there await a people's feet

In the paths that he prepared.



There, till the vision he foresaw

Splendid and whole arise,

And unimagined Empires draw

To council 'neath his skies,

The immense and brooding Spirit still

Shall quicken and control.

Living he was the land, and dead,

His soul shall be her soul!