Written in Hull General Cemetery, published in the Hull Weekly Express on the 29th April 1885
Strolling among the myriad dead
Night slowly round me creeps;
Whilst calmly in each narrow bed
A soulless body sleeps.
Unconscious of the flight of time
In death’s embrace they lie
They see no dawn, no noontide prime
Nor crimson evening sky.
The changing seasons come and go;
They motionless remain;
They feel no chill from winter’s snow,
No damp beneath the rain;
They wake not when fair smiling spring
Her bright green banner waves,
Nor hear the birds, new-wedded, sing
A carol round their graves;
They will not wake till in their ears
The Judgement clarion rings,
And robed in majesty appears
The mighty king of kings.
I would not wake them from their sleep!
To face the world again;
Their slumber now is calm and deep,
’tis free from sin and pain;
But I would let the song-birds note,
Like music of the spheres,
Around their resting places float
Through all the endless years.
And I would have sweet flow’rs in bloom
To cover all the ground
Till incense rose from ev’ry tomb
And fill’d the air around‒
A sign that though their bodies lie
Beneath the chilly sod,
Their souls are radiant in the sky,
Around the throne of God.
Lord strengthen then me to bear the thought
Of that sure-coming day
When I shall be like them ‒ as nought
But cold unfeeling clay