TWO EPITAPHS.
I.
ON THE REV. R. H., WHO DIED OF TYPIILTS FEVER.
IN DERRY CATHEDRAL.
DOWN through our crowded lanes and closer air,
0 Friend ! how beautiful thy footsteps were.
When through the fever's waves of fire they trod, A Form was with thee like the Son of God.
'Twas but one step for those victorious feet From their day's walk unto the golden street, And they who saw that walk, so bright and brief, Have mark'd this marble with their Hope and Grief.
ON THE LATE CAPTAIN Born, OF HER MAJESTY'S SHIP AJAX, DROWNED AT KINGSTOWN. IN ST. PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL.
Safe from the rocks, whence swept thy manly form The tide's white rush, the stepping of the storm, Borne with a public pomp by just decree, Heroic sailor ! from that fatal sea, A city vows this marble unto thee.
And here, in this calm place, where never din Of Earth's great water-floods shall enter in,
Where to our human hearts two thoughts are given,—
One Christ's self-sacrifice, the other, Heaven,— Here is it meet for Grief and Love to grave The Christ-taught bravery that died to save, The life, not lost, but found beneath the wave.
WILLIAM ALEXANDEE.
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