---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Lambourne, Alfred
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 18
number: 7
published: 1915-05
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Alfred Lambourne, "In Memoriam: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 18, no. 7 (May 1915): 631.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1807unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera1807unse
start_page: 631
end_page: 631
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1915-05)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1807unse
  publication_year: 1915
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1915, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# In Memoriam: A Poem

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In   Memoriam
Yea, all the dead of ages slumber still,
  And their lost voices come to us no more
They rise not up, come forth on plain or hill,
  Ascend to life from ocean's sunken floor.

They lie, the friend and foe, as they have lain
  To time of peace the time of tumult yields
Who died for Thee or in Thy name were slain,
  In grassy mounds on countless battlefields.

Wing we our eager feet, or weigh, with lead
  With deeper knowledge shall the game be won ?
In trust shall we above our cherished dead,

  With ashen lips repeat, "Thy will be done"?

Yet not Thy words, O Christ, nor love shall fail,
  More sweet with years Thy teaching ever sounds            ;

May we the heights of Thy completeness scale,
  And know beyond dead formalism's bounds?

Yea, unto doubt itself Thou bring'st a hope,
  Unbound by selfish or by narrow creed
Yea, still thy mighty love of boundless scope,
  With cross we follow where Thy footsteps lead

                              ALFRED LAMBOURNE