Tread softly! -- bow the head -- In reverent silence bow! -- No passing bell doth toll, Yet an immortal soul Is passing now. Stranger! however great, With lowly reverence bow: There's one in that poor shed -- One by that paltry bed, Greater than thou. Beneath that beggar's roof, Lo! Death doth keep his state; Enter! -- no crowds attend -- Enter! -- no guards defend This palace-gate! That pavement damp and cold, No smiling courtiers tread; One silent woman stands Lifting with meagre hands A dying head. No mingling voices sound -- An infant wail alone; A sob suppress'd -- again That short deep gasp, and then The parting groan. Oh, change! oh, wondrous change -- Burst are the prison bars -- This moment there, so low, So agonized, and now Beyond the stars! Oh, change -- stupendous change! There lies the soulless clod: The sun eternal breaks -- The new immortal wakes -- Wakes with his God. |