Verses suggested by seeing a funeral at which none were present as mourners

No deep-toned requiem responsive knelled,

As sought the grave this solitary bier –

No solemn chaunt the pealing organ swelled –

No mourner gave the tributary tear !


All seemed to urge a more than decent haste

To place the dead beneath the humble sod;

From every heart kind memory was effaced,

Low laid and lonely in the last abode.


Was this some felon bleeding from his doom! –

Is poverty a crime of dye so deep! –

That no one followed to his clay-formed tomb,

And viewed him in how they must shortly sleep?


The FLOWER of Jesse, pure and undefiled,

Diffusing healing influence o’er mankind,

Bloomed desolate: - in life and death reviled

By those to mercy’s rays perversely blind.


Then sleep, forgotten one; though none shall weep,

This cold neglect will not disturb thy rest –

Whilst o’er their graves bleak snows and wild winds sweep,

Eternal summers smile upon the blest.