The Distance of the Dead

How distant in a moment are the dead! Round Mamre's Cave, four thousand years ago,A long procession up from Egypt led, Closed mourning, like a sable cloud of woe. Loud was the grief, and round about it a throePassed from it into nature -- passed and fled!And now, even where the Patriarch's hoar head In the cold gloom lay drift-like, none may know.All of those mourners died too, and at last Fell like dim shadows from the world away:How far back in the dawn of Time they passed Into the mortal mystery of decay -- And yet the Loved One who but died to-day,Is sundered from us by a gulf as vast!