54077: Digging

<p dir="ltr"> What matter makes my spade for tears or mirth,<br> Letting down two clay pipes into the earth?<br> The one I smoked, the other a soldier<br> Of Blenheim, Ramillies, and Malplaquet<br> Perhaps. The dead man's immortality<br> Lies represented lightly with my own,<br> A yard or two nearer the living air<br> Than bones of ancients who, amazed to see<br> Almighty God erect the mastodon,<br> Once laughed, or wept, in this same light of day.<br></p>