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Message:: [QUOTE="lucyray, post: 1312769, member: 24565"]My condolences to Clinker's family, and all who grieve his passing.Rest in peace, sir. LucyRay<blockquote><blockquote>[SIZE=+1]THE LETTER[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]by: Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1906)[/SIZE] </blockquote></blockquote> <ul> <li><ul> <li>[SIZE=+2]<img src="http://www.poetry-archive.com/i_pic.gif" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/SIZE] HELD his letter in my hand,</li> <li>And even while I read</li> <li>The lightning flashed across the land</li> <li>The word that he was dead.</li> <li></li> <li>How strange it seemed! His living voice</li> <li>Was speaking from the page</li> <li>Those courteous phrases, tersely choice,</li> <li>Light-hearted, witty, sage.</li> <li></li> <li>I wondered what it was that died!</li> <li>The man himself was here,</li> <li>His modesty, his scholar's pride,</li> <li>His soul serene and clear.</li> <li></li> <li>These neither death nor time shall dim,</li> <li>Still this sad thing must be--</li> <li>Henceforth I may not speak to him,</li> <li>Though he can speak to me!</li> </ul></li> </ul>[TABLE="width: 75%"][TR][TD="width: 100%, bgcolor: #c6bc9d"][SIZE=-1]"The Letter" is reprinted from THE SISTERS' TRAGEDY WITH OTHER POEMS,LYRICAL AND DRAMATIC. Thomas Bailey Aldrich. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1891.[/SIZE][/TD][/TR][/TABLE][/QUOTE]