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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Extracts from The Grave: The Resurrection

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Robert Blair (1699–1746)

Extracts from The Grave: The Resurrection

(See full text.)

NOR shall it hope in vain: the time draws on

When not a single spot of burial earth,

Whether on land or in the spacious sea,

But must give back its long committed trust

Inviolate, and faithfully shall these

Make up the full account, not the least atom

Embezzled or mislaid of the whole tale.

Each soul shall have a body ready furnished,

And each shall have his own. Hence, ye profane!

Ask not how this can be. Sure the same power

That reared the piece at first and took it down

Can reassemble the loose scattered parts

And put them as they were. Almighty God

Has done much more, nor is his arm impaired

With length of days, and what he can he will.

His faithfulness stands bound to see it done.

When the dread trumpet sounds, the slumbering dust,

Not unattentive to the call, shall wake,

And every joint possess its proper place

With a new elegance of form unknown

To its first state. Nor shall the conscious soul

Mistake its partner, but, amidst the crowd

Singling its other half, into its arms

Shall rush with all the impatience of a man

That ’s new come home, who having long been absent

With haste runs over ev’ry different room

In pain to see the whole. Thrice happy meeting!

Nor time nor death shall part them ever more.

’Tis but a night, a long and moonless night,

We make the grave our bed, and then are gone.

Thus at the shut of even the weary bird

Leaves the wide air and, in some lonely brake,

Cowers down and dozes till the dawn of day,

Then claps his well-fledged wings and bears away.