“Premature Burial" (A Poem)

Best known for his poems "King Alfred" (1880) and "The Birth of Australia" (1889), Percy Russell was a noted English author who wrote both fiction and nonfiction throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century. As fears of premature burial swept Europe and the United States during this time frame, Russell, along with other authors like Seba Smith, utilized their artistic talents to voice their concerns about this growing anxiety.

To die is natural; but the living death
Of those who waken into consciousness
Though for a moment only, ay, or less
To find a coffin stifling their last breath,
Surpasses every horror underneath
The sum of Heaven, and should surely check
Haste in the living to remove the wreck
Of what was just before, the soul’s fair sheath

How many have been smothered in their shroud!
How many have sustained this awful woe!
Humanity should shudder could we know
How many cried to God in anguish loud,
Accusing those whose haste a wrong had wrought
Beyond the worst that ever devil thought.[1]

Works Referenced

Russell, Percy. “Premature Burial.” Burial Reformer 1 (1906): 33.
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[1] Russell, 33.