A little light, heat, motion, breath; 
Then silence, darkness, and decay; 
This is the change from life to death 
 In him the weareth clay. 
But Time?s one drop ?twixt that and this, 
Ah! What a gulf of doom it is. 
The cheek is fair, the eye is bold, 
The ripe lip like a berry red; 
Then the shroud clothes them;?thus behold 
 The living and the dead! 
And how time?s last cold drop serence 
Swells to eternity between. 

Yet not for horror, nor to weep; 
But through the solemn dark to see 
That life, though swift, is wonder-deep, 
 And death the only key 
That lets to that mysterious height 
Where earth and heaven in God unite.