How oft, directed by the friendly care,

Silent, I’d range the church yard’s awful gloom,

Musing the fatal stroke I once must share,

A wither’d victim to the cheerless tomb.

“There weigh my dust:” prepare for that grand scene,

When life’s last blaze shall quiver to decay:

Then I’d exult in thee, my sacred theme,

And sure companion thro’ the trackless way.

E’en now with secret rapture I survey,

When my freed soul shall break her chain, and rise