Two dust poems by Sir Walter Raleigh and Anon

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Even such is Time, which takes in trust
Our youth, our joys, and all we have;
And pays us but with age and dust,
Which in the dark and silent grave,
When we have wandered all our ways,
Shuts up the story of our days:

And from which earth, and grave, and dust,
The Lord shall raise me up, I trust.


Sir Walter Raleigh (?1552-1618)
(The final couplet may be a later addition)

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Kind angels watch this fleeping dust
Til Jesus comes to raise the just
Then may they awake in fweet furprise
And in their faviour's image rise


(Transcribed by me from a grave in the churchyard, Beltingham, Northumberland.I have used 'f' to represent the long 's'.)

(Variant of final couplet: Then she'll awake in sweet surprise/ To meet her saviour in the skies. From Malahide Township, Elgin County, Ontario)

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I find these almost equally moving - although Raleigh's is near-flawless and pure poetry, while the Anonymous epitaph is (fittingly) somewhat rough hewn and achieves an almost accidental poetry.

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