'Twas lately said in open court
By one, the first of legal lights,
That malice with the dead might sport
At will, for 'dead men had no rights;'
That were it not from wrong to save
The quick, the body could affirm
No title even to a grave,
If left abandoned to the worm.
The doubting heart within me died;
I thought upon a distant spot,
I thought of two where side by side
Their bodies lay, and they were not.
When suddenly there rose before,
There flashed upon my inward eye,
A face that I shall see no more
In fainter light beneath the sky;
And flickering over all the face
There played a smile, the merry flame
Of such a joy as left no place
For care of earthly name or claim;
A smile of light and life so full,
Its mirth o'erflowed me as it spread,
In frank surprise that men how dull
Soever, could account him dead!