| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | February 28 | | Anne Clough | | By Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) |
| | | | Sister of Arthur Hugh Clough and first president of Newnham College, Cambridge. She died Feb. 28, 1892. |
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ESTEEMED, admired, beloved,—farewell! | |
| Alas! what need hadst thou of peace? | |
| Our bitterest winter tolls the knell, | |
| And tolls, and tolls, and will not cease. | |
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| It tolls and tolls with iron tongue | 5 |
| For empty lives and hearts unblessed, | |
| And tolls for thee, whose heart was young, | |
| Whose life was stored with hope and rest. | |
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| Thy meditative quaint replies, | |
| Cast out like arrows on the air, | 10 |
| The humor in thy dark blue eyes, | |
| The wisdom in thy silver hair,— | |
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| Though these grow faint, shade after shade, | |
| As those who loved thee droop and pass, | |
| Thy being was not wholly made | 15 |
| To shrink like breath upon a glass. | |
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| Thou with new graces didst maintain | |
| The old, outworn scholastic seat, | |
| Throned, simply, with an ardent train | |
| Of studious beauty round thy feet. | 20 |
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| Those girls, grown mothers soon, will teach | |
| Their sons to praise thy sacred name, | |
| Thy hand that taught their hands to reach | |
| The broader thought, the brighter flame. | |
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| So thou, though sunk amidst the gloom | 25 |
| That gathers round our reedy shore, | |
| Shalt with diffused light illume | |
| A thousand hearths unlit before. | | | |
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