| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Warning and Reply | | By Emily Brontë (1818–1848) |
| | | IN the earth—the earth—thou shalt be laid, | |
| A grey stone standing over thee; | |
| Black mould beneath thee spread, | |
| And black mould to cover thee. | |
| |
| ‘Well—there is rest there, | 5 |
| So fast come thy prophecy: | |
| The time when my sunny hair | |
| Shall with grass roots entwinèd be!’ | |
| |
| But cold—cold is that resting-place, | |
| Shut out from joy and liberty, | 10 |
| And all who lov’d thy living face | |
| Will shrink from it shudderingly. | |
| |
| ‘Not so. Here the world is chill, | |
| And sworn friends fall from me; | |
| But there—they will own me still, | 15 |
| And prize my memory.’ | |
| |
| Farewell, then, all that love, | |
| All that deep sympathy; | |
| Sleep on: Heaven laughs above, | |
| Earth never misses thee. | 20 |
| |
| Turf-sod and tombstone drear | |
| Part human company: | |
| One heart breaks only—here, | |
| But that heart was worthy thee! | | | | |
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