Classic Poem

Cease , ye tearful mourners!
Thus your hearts to rend;
Death is life's beginning,
Rather than its end.

All the grave's adornments,—
What do they declare,
Save that the departed
Are but sleeping there?

What though now to darkness
We this body give;
Soon shall all its senses
Re-awake, and live;

Soon shall warmth revisit
These poor bones again;
And the blood meander
Through each tingling vein;

And from its corruption
This same body soar,
With the selfsame spirit
That was here of yore.

E'en as duly scatter'd
By the sower's hand,
In the fading Autumn
O'er the fallow land,

Nature's seed decaying,
First in darkness dies;
Ere it can in glory
Renovated rise.

Earth, to thy fond bosom
We this pledge intrust;
Oh! we pray, be careful
Of the precious dust.

This was once the mansion
Of a soul endow'd
With sublimest powers,
By the breath of God.

Here eternal Wisdom
Lately made His home;
And again will claim it,
In the days to come;

When thou must this body,
Bone for bone, restore;
Every single feature
Perfect as before.

O, divinest Period!
Speed upon thy way;
O, eternal Justice!
Make no more delay.

When shall love in glory
Its fruition see?
When shall hope be lost
In immortality?