by Robert Stephen Hawker (1803 - 1875)

Death Song
Language: English 
There lies a cold corpse upon the sands
Down by the rolling sea;
Close up the eyes and straighten the hands
As a Christian man’s should be.

Bury it deep, for the good of my soul,
Six feet below the ground;
Let the sexton come and the death-bell toll
And good men stand around.

Lay it among the churchyard stones,
Where the priest hath bless’d the clay:
I cannot leave the unburied bones,
And I fain would go my way.

Confirmed with The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, ed. by Arthur Quiller-Couch, 1922.


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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-04-25
Line count: 12
Word count: 80