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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OF BEAUTY by EVA K. ANGLESBURG SONG FOR THE NEWBORN by MARY HUNTER AUSTIN THE LAST LULLABY by HENRY BATAILLE PRELUDE TO FAITH by MARJORIE MERRILL BLISS DEMOCRITUS by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES EXTEMPORE IN THE COURT OF SESSION by ROBERT BURNS ELEGY ON NEWSTEAD ABBEY by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |