I'm not asking for favors   not tonight   I look up in the sky...   all the rockets fall down (fall down)   too many promises   too many lies   too many faces for me to know      Sometimes I sit among the markers   and contemplate my next life   says something less sympathetic-   "a little more unconditional respect was buried   here"      "But it never lived   and it never died   it never came from them   it was always inside..."      I don't care if time just passes us by   I can stand the change...   but not the cruelty   too many promises   too many lies   too many faces for me to know      Sometimes I sit among the markers   and contemplate my next life   says something less sympathetic-   "a little more unconditional respect was buried   here"      "But it never lived   and it never died   it never came from them   it was always inside..."      (Spirits of the Dead by E.A. Poe - 1827)      Thy soul shall find itself alone   'Mid dark thoughts of the grey tomb-stone;   Not one, of all the crowd, to pry   Into thine hour of secrecy.      Be silent in that solitude,   Which is not loneliness- for then   The spirits of the dead, who stood   In life before thee, are again   In death around thee, and their will   Shall overshadow thee; be still.      The night, though clear, shall frown,   And the stars shall not look down   From their high thrones in the Heaven   With light like hope to mortals given,   But their red orbs, without beam,   To thy weariness shall seem   As a burning and a fever   Which would cling to thee for ever.      Now are thoughts thou shalt not banish,   Now are visions ne'er to vanish;   From thy spirit shall they pass   No more, like dew-drop from the grass.