Came to release them to the world on high,
Praise trembled still on each expiring breath,
And holy triumph beamed from every eye.
Then gentle hands their “dust to dust” consign;
With quiet tears, the simple rites are said,
And here they sleep, till at the trump divine,
The earth and ocean render up their dead.
These lines, which originally appeared anonymously in an American Newspaper, are quoted in Relics of Literature. by Stephen Collett, A.M. London. Thomas Boys, 1823.
(“Stephen Collett” was said to be a name assumed by Thomas Byerley.)