Waltz around a Coffin

Off comes the ancient yellow linen

Which graced a rotted shrine!

Thrown by the dancers onto the earth,

It falls, decayed, behind!

Now bared be the coffin once covered!

But still their graceful waltz

Does not cease but continues round,

Unrestrained by ballroom walls!

Round and round a coffin aged

Do mortals merry dance!

Now at this odd casket of death

Do humans gleeful glance!

Twirling, twirling on dying grass,

The women smile and laugh!

Now by this broken frame of wood

Do dancers pass in hate or love!

The dance quickens and the rhythm rushes

And all's forgotten the corpse to bury,

Outside the graveyard the waltz in the marshes

Of Death an utter mockery!

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