I SOUGHT you, friends of youth, in sun and shade,
By home and hearth--but, no! ye were not there;
'Where are ye gone, belov'd ones, where?' I said;
I listen'd, and an echo answer'd, 'Where?'

Then silence fell around--upon a tomb
I sate me down dismay'd at death, and wept;
Over my senses fell a cloud of gloom,
They sank before the myst'ry, and I slept.

I slept--and then before mine eyes there press'd
Faces that show'd a bliss unknown before;
The loved whom I in life had once possess'd,
Came one by one, till all were there once more.

A light of nobler worlds was round their head,
A glow of better actions made them fair;
'The dead are there,' triumphantly I said,
Triumphantly the echo answered, 'There!'