Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By When Death Shall LayWilliam B. Tappan (17941849)
W
And every murmur hush to sleep,
When those that give affection now,
Shall o’er affection’s memory weep,
That strangers should receive the sigh;
I would not, that a hand unknown,
Should, reckless, close the slumbering eye:
That beat alone to love and me,
Each parting pang subdued, how kind,
How peaceful, would my exit be.
Should pillow, cold, on foreign clay;
I would not, that my grassy bed
Should be from home and love away:
Near kindred dust, these relics laid:
How calm my slumbers, how profound,
Beneath the old tree’s sombre shade.