“And if I should live to be The last leaf upon the tree In the spring, Let them smile, as I do now, At the old forsaken bough Where I cling. Oliver Wendell Holmes (Sr.)
“The woods decay, the woods decay and fall, The vapors weep their burthen to the ground, Man comes and tills the field and lies beneath, And after many a summer dies the swan. Alfred Lord Tennyson
“When a daffodil I see, Hanging down his head t’wards me, Guess I may what I must be: First, I shall decline my head; Secondly, I shall be dead; Lastly, safely buryed. Robert Herrick
“And so, as Kinsmen, met a Night— We talked between the Rooms— Until the Moss had reached our lips— And covered up—our names— Emily Elizabeth Dickinson