Ward of the Law!—dread Shadow of a King!
Whose Realm had dwindled to one stately room;
Whose universe was gloom immers’d in gloom,
Darkness as thick as Life o’er Life could fling,
Yet haply cheered with some faint glimmering
Of Faith and Hope; if thou by nature’s doom
Gently hast sunk into the quiet tomb,
Why should we bend in grief, to sorrow cling,
When thankfulness were best?—Fresh-flowing tears,
Or, where tears flow not, sigh succeeding sigh,
Yield to such after-thought the sole reply
Which justly it can claim. The Nation hears
In this deep knell—silent for threescore years,
An unexampled voice of awful memory!