| Higginson and Bigelow, comps. American Sonnets. 1891. | | | | The Succession | | By Frances Laughton Mace (1836–1899) |
| | | AS one by one the singers of our land, | |
| Summoned away by death’s unfailing dart, | |
| Unto the greater mystery depart, | |
| Sadly we watch them from the desolate strand. | |
| Oh! who shall fill their places in the band | 5 |
| Of tuneful voices? Who with equal art | |
| Speak the unwritten language of the heart, | |
| And the mute signs of Nature understand? | |
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| Yet poetry from earth has never ceased; | |
| It is a fire perpetual, which has caught | 10 |
| Its flame from off the altar-place of Heaven. | |
| Never has failed, in darkest days, a priest | |
| Who, by no price of gain or glory bought, | |
| For his soul’s peace his life to song has given. | | | | |
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