Black Beetles in Amber

I Slept, and, waking in the years to be,

Heard voices, and approaching whence they came,

Listened indifferently where a key

Had lately been removed. An ancient dame

Said to her daughter: "Go to yonder caddy

And get some emery to scour your daddy."

And then I knew—some intuition said—

That tombs were not and men had cleared their shelves

Of urns; and the electro-plated dead

Stood pedestaled as statues of themselves.

With famous dead men all the public places

Were thronged, and some in piles awaited bases.

One mighty structure's high façade alone

Contained a single monumental niche,

Where, central in that steep expanse of stone,

Gleamed the familiar form of Thomas Fitch.

A man cried: "Lo! Truth's temple and its founder!"

Then gravely added: "I'm her chief expounder."