The immortality she gave 1
We borrowed at her Grave－
For just one Plaudit famishing,
The Might of Human love－
We borrowed at her Grave－
For just one Plaudit famishing,
The Might of Human love－
(F.1684/J.1648)
[1] immortality:: immortal words.
[1, 2] immortality, her Grave:: a hint on an epitaph. This poem was written in 1886. The epitaph of George Eliot (1819–1880) was taken from her poem, "O May I Join the Choir Invisible" (1867).
[3, 4] famishing, love:: the famishing of human love, to be obtained from the "immortal dead."
O may I join the choir invisible
Of those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end with self,
In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues. ─ George Eliot (1867)
