The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker Edited from the original manuscripts and annotated copies together with a prefatory notice and bibliography by Alfred Wallis |
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THE DIRGE. |
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 | The poetical works of Robert Stephen Hawker |  |
128
THE DIRGE.
[_]
“The first line of these verses haunted the memory and the lips of a good and blameless young farmer who died in my parish some years ago. It was, as I conceive, a fragment of some forgotten dirge, of which he could remember no more. But it was his strong desire that “the words” should be “put upon his headstone,” and he wished me also to write “some other words, to make it complete.” I fulfilled his entreaty, and the stranger who visits my churchyard will find this dirge carven in stone, “in sweet remembrance of the just,” and to the praise of the dead, Richard Cann, whose soul was carried by the angels into Paradise on the 15th of February, 1842.”
“Sing from the chamber to the grave!”
Thus did the dead man say:
“A sound of melody I crave,
Upon my burial-day.
Thus did the dead man say:
“A sound of melody I crave,
Upon my burial-day.
“Bring forth some tuneful instrument,
And let your voices rise:
My spirit listened, as it went,
To music of the skies.
And let your voices rise:
My spirit listened, as it went,
To music of the skies.
“Sing sweetly while you travel on,
And keep the funeral slow:—
The angels sing where I am gone,
And you should sing below.
And keep the funeral slow:—
The angels sing where I am gone,
And you should sing below.
“Sing from the threshold to the porch,
Until you hear the bell;
And sing you loudly in the church,
The Psalms I love so well.
Until you hear the bell;
And sing you loudly in the church,
The Psalms I love so well.
129
“Then bear me gently to my grave,
And as you pass along,
Remember, 'twas my wish to have
A pleasant funeral song.
And as you pass along,
Remember, 'twas my wish to have
A pleasant funeral song.
“So earth to earth, and dust to dust!
And though my flesh decay,
My soul shall sing among the just
Until the Judgment-day.”
And though my flesh decay,
My soul shall sing among the just
Until the Judgment-day.”
1842.
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