None so sweet as melancholy

=0=0=0=

S i l e n c e

Elmwood Cemetery

Memphis, Tennessee

=0=0=0=

When I go musing all alone,

Thinking of divers things fore-known,

When I build castles in the air,

Void of sorrow and void of fear,

Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet --

Methinks the time runs very fleet.

All my joys to this are folly,

Naught so sweet as melancholy.

When I lie waking all alone,

Recounting what I have ill done,

My thoughts on me then tyrannise,

Fear and sorrow me surprise,

Whether I tarry still or go --

Methinks the time moves very slow.

All my griefs to this are jolly,

Naught so mad as melancholy.

When to myself I act and smile,

With pleasing thoughts the time beguile,

By a brook side or wood so green,

Unheard, unsought for, or unseen,

A thousand pleasures do me bless,

And crown my soul with happiness.

All my joys besides are folly,

None so sweet as melancholy.

=0=0=0=

from The Anatomy of Melancholy

=Robert "Democritus Junior" Burton (1577-1640)=

=0=0=0=

Dedicated to the memory of Helene Hanff

April 15, 1916 - April 9, 1997

=0=0=0=

To breathe and wait

=0=0=0=

E v e r   A g a i n

Elmwood Cemetery

Memphis, Tennessee

=0=0=0=

Will they ever come to me, ever again,

The long long dances,

On through the dark till the dim stars wane?

Shall I feel the dew on my throat, and the stream

Of wind in my hair? Shall our white feet gleam

In the dim expanses?

Oh, feet of a fawn to the greenwood fled,

Alone in the grass and the loveliness;

Leap of the hunted, no more in dread,

Beyond the snares and the deadly press:

Yet a voice still in the distance sounds,

A voice and a fear and a haste of hounds;

O wildly labouring, fiercely fleet,

Onward yet by river and glen ...

Is it joy or terror, ye storm-swift feet?

To the dear lone lands untroubled of men,

Where no voice sounds, and amid the shadowy green

The little things of the woodland live unseen.

What else is Wisdom? What of man's endeavour

Or God's high grace, so lovely and so great?

To stand from fear set free, to breathe and wait;

To hold a hand uplifted over Hate;

And shall not Loveliness be loved for ever?

from The Bacchae

=Euripides=

=0=0=0=

Dedicated to the memory of a great conservative

and friend of the United States of America

Lady Margaret Thatcher

October 13, 1925 - April 8, 2013

=0=0=0=

=0=0=0=

To live is happy

=0=0=0=

T h e   S e c r e t   I s   O u t

Elmwood Cemetery

Memphis, Tennessee

=0=0=0=

Happy he, on the weary sea

Who hath fled the tempest and won the haven.

Happy whoso hath risen, free,

Above his striving. For strangely graven

Is the orb of life, that one and another

In gold and power may outpass his brother,

And men in their millions float and flow

And seethe with a million hopes as leaven;

And they win their will, or they miss their will,

And the hopes are dead or are pined for still,

But whoe'er can know,

As the long days go,

That to live is happy, hath found his heaven.

from The Bacchae

=Euripides=

=0=0=0=

One by one

=0=0=0=

R i g h t   B e h i n d   Y o u

Bonaventure Cemetery

Savannah, Georgia

=0=0=0=

There's a land beyond the river

That we call the sweet forever

And we only reach that shore by faith's decree

One by one we'll gain the portals

There to dwell with the immortals

When they ring those golden bells for you and me.

Don't you hear the bells now ringing?

Don't you hear the angels singing?

It's a glory hallelujah jubilee!

In that far-off sweet forever

Just beyond the shining river

When they ring the golden bells for you and me.

We shall know no sin or sorrow

In that haven of tomorrow

When our barque shall sail beyond the silver sea

We shall only know the blessing

Of our Father's sweet caressing

When they ring those golden bells for you and me.

When our days shall know their number

And in death we sweetly slumber

When the King commands the spirit to be free

Nevermore with anguish laden

We shall reach that lovely Eden

When they ring those golden bells for you and me.

Don't you hear the bells now ringing?

Don't you hear the angels singing?

It's a glory hallelujah jubilee!

In that far-off sweet forever

Just beyond the shining river

When they ring those golden bells for you and me.

=Daniel (Dion) de Marbelle (1818-1903)=

=0=0=0=

And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,

proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

=Revelation 22:1=

=0=0=0=

In loving memory of my precious grandmother

Mary Elizabeth Cassidy Sandifer

October 15, 1918 - April 6, 1981

When They Ring Those Golden Bells was sung at her funeral.

=0=0=0=

=0=0=0=

Beauty, hope, cheer and courage

=0=0=0=

F o r e v e r   Y o u n g

Glenwood Cemetery

Tupelo, Mississippi

=0=0=0=

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up interest wrinkles the soul.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt;

as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear;

as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of every heart there is a recording chamber.

So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope,

cheer and courage, so long are you young.

When your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism

 and the ice of cynicism, then, and then only, are you grown old.

And then, indeed as the ballad says, you just fade away.

=Douglas MacArthur=

=0=0=0=

Dedicated to the memory of a great American

General Douglas MacArthur

January 26, 1880 - April 5, 1964

Medal of Honor = Purple Heart = Silver Star

=0=0=0=