William Kerr
In Memoriam D. O. M
Chestnut candles are lit again
For the dead that died in spring:
Dead lovers walk the orchard ways,
And the dead cuckoos sing.
Is it they who live and we who are dead?
Hardly the springtime knows
For which today the cuckoo calls,
And the white blossom blows.
Listen and hear the happy wind
Whisper and lightly pass:
‘Your love is sweet as hawthorn is,
Your hope green as the grass.
‘The hawthorn’s faint and quickly gone,
The grass in autumn dies;
Put by your life, and see the spring
With everlasting eyes.’
/ Contents, p. 2