ABSTRACT
This anonymous parody of Felicia Hemans was published in College Rhymes, contributed by members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge in 1861. The formal model, Hemans5 often anthologised ‘The Hour of Death’, was published in The Forest Sanctuary and Other Poems (1825). These are the first five of the poem’s ten stanzas: Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath, And stars to set – but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death! Day is for mortal care, Eve, for glad meetings round the joyous hearth, Night, for the dreams of sleep, the voice of prayer; – But all for thee, thou mightiest of the earth. The banquet hath its hour – Its feverish hour, of mirth, and song, and wine; There comes a day for grief’s o’erwhelming power, A time for softer tears – but all are thine. Youth and the opening rose, May look like things too glorious for decay, And smile at thee – but thou art not of those That wait the ripen’d bloom to seize their prey. Leaves have their time to fall, And flowers to wither at the north wind’s breath, And stars to set – but all, Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O Death!
