Michael Madhusudan Dutt - Death

Death

দাঁড়াও পথিক-বর, জন্ম যদি তব
বঙ্গে! তিষ্ঠ ক্ষণকাল! এ সমাধিস্তলে
জননীর কলে শিশু লভয়ে যেমতি
বিরাম মহীর পদে মহানিদ্রাবৃত
দত্তোকুলোদ্ভব কবি শ্রীমধুসূদন!
যশোরে সাগরদাঁড়ি কবতক্ষ-তীরে
জন্মভূমি, জন্মদাতা দত্ত মহামতি
রাজনারায়ণ নামে, জননী জাহ্নবী

Dutt died in Calcutta General Hospital on 27 June 1873, three days after the death of Henrietta. Just three days prior to his death, he recited a passage from Shakespeare's Macbeth to his 'friend Gour, expressing his deepest conviction of life:

...out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more; it is a tale Told by an idiot,
full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.


(Macbeth)

Gour responded with a passage from Longfellow

Tell me not in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream.
Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal.

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