'Twas lately said in open court

'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!