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Home  »  American Sonnets  »  William Gibson (1826–1887)

Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891.

On an Etruscan Tomb

William Gibson (1826–1887)

ON thy rough sides, O cinerary urn!

Two thousand years and more these warriors fight;

One lifts the shield and one the sword to smite;

The end it is not given us to discern,

Nor yet the purport of that strife to learn.

Scorn not my reading, terrible if trite.

All life is such a battle, until the night

Falls, and ephemeral heats to ashes burn.

Lo! on the lid, wrapt closely to the chin

In the long sheet, arms limp upon the breast,

Head drooped and turned, a form of perfect rest;

Strewn to the wind the dust that lay herein;

Yet on this sepulchre the Etruscan faith

Carved unmistakably a Sleep—not Death.