There was no bell to peal thy funeral dirge,
  No nodding plumes to wave above thy bier,
  No shroud to wrap thee but the foaming surge,
  No kindly voices thy dark way to cheer,
  No eye to give the tribute of a tear.
  Alone, "unknell'd, uncoffin'd," thou hast died,
  Without one gentle mourner lingering near;
  Down the deep waters thou unseen didst glide,
  With Ocean's countless dead to slumber side by side.
 
  Thou sleep'st not with thy fathers. O'er thy bed,
  The flowers that deck their tombs may never wave;
  To plead remembrance for thee o'er thy head
  No sculptur'd marble shall arise. Thy grave
  Is the dark boundless deep, whose waters lave
  The shores of empires. When thou sought'st thy rest
  Within their silent depths, they only gave
  A circling ripple, then with foaming crest
  The booming waves roll'd over their unconscious guest.
 
  'Tis said that far beneath the wild waves rushing,
  Where sea-flowers bloom and fabled Peris dwell,
  That there the restless waters cease their gushing,
  And leave their dead within some sparkling cell,
  Where gems are gleaming, and the lone sea shell
  Is breathing its sweet music. And 'tis said
  That Time, who weaveth over Earth a spell
  Of blight and ruin, o'er the Ocean's dead
  He passeth lightly on, with trackless, silent tread.
 
  Then, though no marble e'er shall rise for thee,
  No monument to mark thy last long home,
  Thine ocean grave unhonored shall not be, --
  The coral insect there shall rear a tomb
  That age shall ne'er destroy; and there shall bloom
  The fadeless ocean flowers. And though the glare
  Of the bright sunbeams ne'er shall light its gloom,
  Yet glancing eyes and forms unearthly fair
  Shall throng around thy couch, and hymn a requiem there.
 
  Now fare thee well! I will not weep that thou
  Didst pass so soon away; for though thou wert
  Still in thy boyhood's prime, and thy fair brow
  Undimmed by age; yet sad was thy young heart,
  For thou hadst seen the light of life depart,
  And Love had thrown his wild and burning spell
  Around thee, and with deep, insidious art
  Had maddened thee. Then sounded loud the knell
  Of all thy bright young dreams. My earliest friend, farewell!