Elysium

by Virgil — a poem card from Justes Mots

A visionary description of Elysium, the blessed realm where virtuous souls enjoy eternal peace, beauty, and reunion with ancestors like Anchises and Aeneas. Attributed to Virgil's Aeneid, this passage offers consoling imagery of afterlife joy and spiritual continuity, suitable for memorials celebrating a life well-lived.

A land for joyance made; blest for the blest;
Happy in being chosen for their rest;
For nowhere greener lawns, more bow’ry glades
Inviting into more reposeful shades
Of arched romantic groves, with, ev’rywhere,
Steeped in a purple glow, a larger air
Than Earth’s; for the lower world owes no debt
To sun or stars with which our skies are set;…

Themes: sympathy · grief · reflection