At Rowsley Church

a Victorian tomb-effigy, in marble - what a find! -
in a small parish church, reeking of must and dust,
that Anglican incense, is of a woman with the pure
anonymously stylised face of a novice,
as if the sculptor (novice too) dared not go too deep
into his medium, or take the liberty of being too personal,
and the bereaved preferred such effacement, to hold in place,
enmarbled, their own number veins of feeling:
IN MEMORY OF CATHERINE LOUISA GEORGINA
DAUGHTER OF COLONEL GEORGE MARLAY

two diminutive winged angels plump the pilow at her head;
her hands, crossed on crucifixed breast, display a ring
on the wedding-finger, pastry-like and crude
as the Madonna lily laid, broken and restored
beside her on an under-blanket - that of a nun perhaps,
since in birth and death she is nominally her father's:
AND WIFE OF JOHN JAMES ROBERT MANNERS

two men then lay claim to her, two men that love her,
the husband yielding pride of family-place to the father,
not to compete in tears, or cash fro the marble casket;
her legs and feet are covered by a blanket, red-veined with blotches:
BORN JANUARY 28TH 1831
DIED APRIL 7TH 1854

and see, how she died young, hidden up to now -
a child huddles in the dead hollow beside her:
AND OF EDITH KATHERINE MARY HER DAUGHTER
BORN MARCH 12TH DIED MARCH 24TH
1854: the inscription is factual,
without added sentiment, as befits total loss

all eloquence, however, is lately bestowed
on the perfectly formed and sculpted head and features
of the precious infant, in thin shift frilled at the neck -
an artist's promise, of impossibly ideal beauty
and comfort in the face of death, love's best preserved
that would otherwise be obliterated, and future that is hoped for
but cannot be wished upon a child

beyond the stained-glass window, a bird sings in the churchyard;
the guidebook gives one sentence to Catherine, 'had she lived,
she would have been the seventh Duchess of Rutland';
under the marble form, into which you are moulded,
what soft human remains are yet fearfully to be uncovered?

© Alec Rapkin