And shade is on the brightest wing, And dust forbids the birds to sing.

-Sitwell, Dame Edith Louisa
  Fa c° ade,'Popular Song'.

But what is Dust, SaveTime's most lethal weapon, Her faithful ally and our sneaking foe?

-Sitwell, Sir (Francis) Osbert
  'Mrs Southern's Enemy'.

For I had expected always Some brightness to hold in trust, Some final innocence To save from dust

-Spender, Sir Stephen Harold
  'What I Expected,Was'.

His iron coat all overgrown with rust, Was underneath envelope'  d with gold, Whose glistering gloss darkened with filthy dust, Well yet appeare'  d, to have been of old A work of rich entail, and curious mold, Woven with antics and wild imagery.

-Spenser, Edmund
  Of Mammon.The Faerie Queen, bk.2, canto 7, stanza 4.

   One day I wrote her name upon the strand, But came the waves and washe'  d it away; Again I wrote it with a second hand, But came the tide, and made my pains his prey. 'Vain man,'said she,'that doest in vain assay A mortal thing so to immortalise, For I my self shall like to this decay, And eke my name be wipe'  d out likewise.' 'Not so,'quod I,'let baser things devise To die in dust, but you shall live by fame: My verse your virtues rare shall eternise, And in the heavens write your glorious name. Where when as death shall all the world subdue, Our love shall live, and later life renew.'

-Spenser, Edmund
  Amoretti, sonnet 75.

Come not, when I am dead, To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime I care no longer, being all unblest; Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by.

-Tennyson
  'Come not, when I am dead', complete poem.

Be near me when my light is low, When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick And tingle; and the heart is sick, And all the wheels of Being slow. Be near me when the sensuous frame Is racked with pains that conquer trust; And Time, a maniac scattering dust, And Life, a Fury slinging flame.

-Tennyson
  In Memoriam A.H.H., canto 50, l.1^8.

And round thee with the breeze of song To stir a little dust of praise.

-Tennyson
  In Memoriam A.H.H., canto 75, l.11^12.

There has fallen a splendid tear From the passion-flower at the gate. She is coming, my dove, my dear; She is coming, my life, my fate; The red rose cries,'She is near, she is near;' And the white rose weeps,'She is late;' The larkspur listens,'I hear, I hear;' And the lily whispers,'I wait.' She is coming, my own, my sweet; Were it ever so airya tread, My heart would hear her and beat, Were it earth in an earthy bed; My dust would hear her and beat; Had I lain for a century dead; Would start and tremble under her feet, And blossom in purple and red.

-Tennyson
  Maud, pt.1, sect.22, stanzas10^11, l. 908^23.

Dead, long dead, Long dead! And my heart is a handful of dust, And the wheels go over my head.

-Tennyson
  Maud, pt.2, sect.5, stanza1, l.239^42.

As well as any bloom upon a flower I like the dust on the nettles, never lost Except to prove the sweetness of a shower.

-Thomas, (Philip) Edward
  'Tall Nettles'.

Some men a forward motion love, But I by backward steps would move, And when this dust falls to the urn In that state I came, return.

-Vaughan, Henry
  Silex Scintillans,'The Retreat'.

Shut close the door; press down the latch; Sleep in thy intellectual crust; Nor lose ten tickings of thy watch Near this unprofitable dust.

-Wordsworth,William
  'A Poet's Epitaph', stanza 9 (published1800).

Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows Like harmony in music; there is a dark Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles Discordant elements, makes them cling together In one society.

-Wordsworth,William
^1805  The Prelude, bk.1, l.340^4 (published1850).