ANGEL of Death! extend thy silent reign! 
Stretch thy dark sceptre oâ??er this new domain
No sable car along the winding road
Has borne to earth its unresisting load;
No sudden mound has risen yet to show
Where the pale slumberer folds his arms below;
No marble gleams to bid his memory live
In the brief lines that hurrying Time can give;
Yet, O Destroyer! from thy shrouded throne
Look on our gift; this realm is all thine own!

Fair is the scene; its sweetness oft beguiled
From their dim paths the children of the wild;
The dark-haired maiden loved its grassy dells,
The feathered warrior claimed its wooded swells,
Still on its slopes the ploughmanâ??s ridges show
The pointed flints that left his fatal bow,
Chipped with rough art and slow barbarian toil,â??­
Last of his wrecks that strews the alien soil! 
Here spread the fields that heaped their ripened store
Till the brown arms of Labor held no more;
The scytheâ??s broad meadow with its dusky blush;
The sickleâ??s harvest with its velvet flush;
The green-haired maize, her silken tresses laid,
In soft luxuriance, on her harsh brocade;
The gourd that swells beneath her tossing plume;
The coarser wheat that rolls in lakes of bloom,â??­
Its coral stems and milk-white flowers alive
With the wide murmurs of the scattered hive;
Here glowed the apple with the pencilled streak
Of morning painted on its southern cheek;
The pearâ??s long necklace strung with golden drops,
Arched, like the banian, oâ??er its pillared props;
Here crept the growths that paid the laborerâ??s care
With the cheap luxuries wealth consents to spare;
Here sprang the healing herbs which could not save
The hand that reared them from the neighboring grave.

Yet all its varied charms, forever free
From task and tribute, Labor yields to thee
No more, when April sheds her fitful rain,
The sowerâ??s hand shall cast its flying grain;
No more, when Autumn strews the flaming leaves,
The reaperâ??s band shall gird its yellow sheaves;
For thee alike the circling seasons flow
Till the first blossoms heave the latest snow. 
In the stiff clod below the whirling drifts,
In the loose soil the springing herbage lifts,
In the hot dust beneath the parching weeds,
Lifeâ??s withering flower shall drop its shrivelled seeds;
Its germ entranced in thy unbreathing sleep
Till what thou sowest mightier angels reap!

Spirit of Beauty! let thy graces blend
With loveliest Nature all that Art can lend. 
Come from the bowers where Summerâ??s life-blood flows
Through the red lips of Juneâ??s half-open rose,
Dressed in bright hues, the loving sunshineâ??s dower;
For tranquil Nature owns no mourning flower. 
Come from the forest where the beechâ??s screen
Bars the fierce moonbeam with its flakes of green;
Stay the rude axe that bares the shadowy plains,
Stanch the deep wound That dries the mapleâ??s veins. 
Come with the stream whose silver-braided rills
Fling their unclasping bracelets from the hills,
Till in one gleam, beneath the forestâ??s wings,
Melts the white glitter of a hundred springs. 
Come from the steeps where look majestic forth
From their twin thrones the Giants of the North
On the huge shapes, that, crouching at their knees,
Stretch their broad shoulders, rough with shaggy trees. 
Through the wide waste of ether, not in vain,
Their softened gaze shall reach our distant plain;
There, while the mourner turns his aching eyes
On the blue mounds that print the bluer skies,
Nature shall whisper that the fading view
Of mightiest grief may wear a heavenly hue. 
Cherub of Wisdom! let thy marble page
Leave its sad lesson, new to every age;
Teach us to live, not grudging every breath
To the chill winds that waft us on to death,
But ruling calmly every pulse it warms,
And tempering gently every word it forms. 
Seraph of Love! in heavenâ??s adoring zone,
Nearest of all around the central throne,
While with soft hands the pillowed turf we spread
That soon shall hold us in its dreamless bed,
With the low whisper,â??­Who shall first be laid
In the dark chamberâ??s yet unbroken shade?â??­
Let thy sweet radiance shine rekindled here,
And all we cherish grow more truly dear. 
Here in the gates of Deathâ??s oâ??erhanging vault,
Oh, teach us kindness for our brotherâ??s fault
Lay all our wrongs beneath this peaceful sod,
And lead our hearts to Mercy and its God.

FATHER of all! in Deathâ??s relentless claim
We read thy mercy by its sterner name;
In the bright flower that decks the solemn bier,
We see thy glory in its narrowed sphere;
In the deep lessons that affliction draws,
We trace the curves of thy encircling laws;
In the long sigh that sets our spirits free,
We own the love that calls us back to Thee!

Through the hu