Sweet Auburn: The Magazine of the Friends of Mount Auburn Mount Auburn: Chapters of Poetry & Prose | Page 3

“... upon the borders of two worlds...”
Edited by Bree D. Harvey, Vice President of Cemetery & Visitor Services
and Lauren Marsh, Communications, Grants & Events Coordinator
I believe that Mount Auburn,
if not a poem, is a book,
a book we can never tire of reading.
Its themes are those of all great
literature—time, love, loss,
war, and nature.
— Celia Gilbert, poet,
speaking at the 175th Anniversary
of Mount Auburn’s Consecration,
September 24, 2006
T
he unique relationship between Mount
Auburn and the public it serves has long
been reflected in poetry, prose, and lore.
The natural beauties of its forested acres were
praised in poetic verse by Harvard students and
other local residents even before the Cemetery’s
founding. In its earliest years, as a young America
began to formulate new traditions and beliefs
surrounding death, those who grieved here trans-
ferred their feelings of love and loss to paper. And
through the decades since, writers have continued
to draw upon Mount Auburn’s most timeless
and universal themes. For this issue, we celebrate
a small selection of works Mount Auburn has
helped to inspire, reflecting 181 years of evolving
ideas about life, death, and the Cemetery itself.
Winter 2013 | 1