Absalom's Pillar

Rear yonder rock ! vast, pillared, and alone,
Like some grim god revealed in awful stone ;
There build my place, and bid my memory stand,
Throned in mid air, to rule along the land.

There hew my name where Judah's daughters glide
To weave their shadowy dance at evening-tide ;
Lo ! their soft voices thrill the stony shade —
" Here the Prince Absalom, who died in youth, is laid."

I have no son, no daughter of my fame
To breathe, 'mid future hearts, their father's name ;
I live with many men, I die alone ;
I go into the ground — Rear the surviving stone !