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The Last Signal

(Oct. 11, 1886)

A MEMORY OF WILLIAM BARNES

   Silently I footed by an uphill road
   That led from my abode to a spot yew-boughed;
Yellowly the sun sloped low down to westward,
      And dark was the east with cloud.
   Then, amid the shadow of that livid sad east,
   Where the light was least, and a gate stood wide,
Something flashed the fire of the sun that was facing it,
      Like a brief blaze on that side.
   Looking hard and harder I knew what it meant -
   The sudden shine sent from the livid east scene;
It meant the west mirrored by the coffin of my friend there,
      Turning to the road from his green,
   To take his last journey forth--he who in his prime
   Trudged so many a time from that gate athwart the land!
Thus a farewell to me he signalled on his grave-way,
      As with a wave of his hand.

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