al-stone.

ON SEEING A SUN-DIAL IN A CHURCHYARD

Grey dial-stone, I fain would know
What motive placed thee here,
Where darkly opes the frequent grave,
And rests the frequent bier.
Ah! bootless creeps the dusky shade,
Slow o'er thy figured plain:
When mortal life has passed away,
Time counts his hours in vain.

As sweeps the clouds o'er ocean's breast,
When shrieks the wintry wind.
So doubtful thoughts, grey dial-stone,
Come sweeping o'er my mind.
I think of what could place thee here,
Of those beneath thee laid,
And ponder if thou wert not raised
In mockery o'er the dead.

Nay, man, when on life's stage they fret.
May mock his fellow-men!
In sooth, their soberest freaks afford
Rare food for mockery then.
But ah! when passed their brief sojourn--
When Heaven's dread doom is said--
Beats there the human heart could pour
Like mockeries o'er the dead?

The fiend unblest, who still to harm
Directs his felon power,
May ope the book of grace to him
Whose day of grace is o'er;
But never sure could mortal man,
Whate'er his age or clime,
Thus raise in mockery o'er the dead,
The stone that measures time.

Grey dial-stone, I fain would know
What motive placed thee here,
Where sadness heaves the frequent sigh,
And drops the frequent tear.
Like thy carved plain, grey dial-stone,
Grief's weary mourners be:
Dark sorrow metes out time to them--
Dark shade marks time on thee.

I know it now: wert thou not placed
To catch the eye of him
To whom, through glistening tears, earth's gauds
Worthless appear, and dim?
We think of time when time has fled,
The friend our tears deplore;
The God whom pride-swollen hearts deny,
Grief-humbled hearts adore.

Grey stone, o'er thee the lazy night
Passes untold away;
Nor were it thine at noon to teach
If failed the solar ray.
In death's dark night, grey dial-stone,
Cease all the works of men;
In life, if Heaven withhold its aid,
Bootless these works and vain.

Grey dial-stone, while yet thy shade
Points out those hours are mine--
While yet at early morn I rise--
And rest at day's decline--
Would that the SUN that formed thine,
His bright rays beamed on me,