From a Coffin [poem by John Shaw Neilson]

[Editor: This poem by John Shaw Neilson was published in Heart of Spring (1919) and Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson (1934).]

From a Coffin

Wrapt in the yellow earth
What should I fear?
Sour hate and shallow mirth
Never come near.
Shape me no epitaph!
Sugar no rhyme!
I had the heart to laugh
Once on a time.

Source:
Shaw Neilson, Heart of Spring, Sydney: The Bookfellow, 1919, page 76

Also published in:
John Shaw Neilson (edited by R. H. Croll), Collected Poems of John Shaw Neilson, Melbourne: Lothian Book Publishing Company, 1934, page 68

Editor’s notes:
epitaph = words given in remembrance of someone, such as on a gravestone, memorial, phrase, or speech, or an act or event by which someone will be remembered

wrapt = archaic form of “wrapped” (to have enclosed or enveloped something, such as wrapping up an item with cloth or paper)