Colonel David Humphreys (1753–1818)

MY heaven-born soul! by body unconfined,

Leave that low tenement and roam abroad;

Forestall the time, when, left each clog behind,

Thy flight shall mount where never mortal trod.

Even now, methinks, upborne in trancéd dreams,

The disencumbered essence tries its wings,

Sees better planets, basks in brighter beams,

To purer sight mysterious symbols brings,

Of unconceived, unutterable things.

Though dust returned to dust the worms devour,

Thee can dread Death annihilate or bind?

There, King of Terrors! stops thy dreaded power;

The bright assurgent, from all dross refined,

High o’er the immense of space regains the world of mind.