Classic Poem

Rest all souls in peaceful slumber,
Who, set free from care and cumber,
Who, from dreams of rapture torn,
Sick of life, or scarcely born,
From the world have found release:
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

They who, friendship vainly seeking,
Never cursed, though heart were breaking,
When the pressure of their hand
Not a soul could understand:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

Souls of lovely maidens, slumber!
Who have tears shed without number,
Or by faithless friend neglected,
Or by this blind world rejected:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

And the youth, whose bride, in sorrow,
By his grave at early morrow,
For that love hath brought him there,
Must her secret taper bear:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

Spirits all, that would not falter,
Called to Truth's dread, glorious altar,
Who for God most holy fought,
Nor the martyr's glory sought:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

And the sunless ones, unsleeping,
Thorny watch by moonlight keeping,
Yearning long for one clear sight
Of their God, in heaven's pure light:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

All who tarried, crowned with flowers,
At the cup in Pleasure's bowers,
But in evil days no less
Tasted of its bitterness:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

They, too, who in tribulation
Sent glad words of inspiration
O'er a gloomy Golgotha,
To a world in sleep that lay:
All who now have found release,
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!

Rest all souls in peaceful slumber,
Who, set free from care and cumber,
Who, from dreams of rapture torn,
Sick of life, or scarcely born,
From the world have found release:
Rest all souls in heavenly peace!