Sydney Herald (NSW : 1831 - 1842), Thursday 9 June 1836, page 4
ORIGINAL POETRY.
TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE
LATE REV. RICHARD HILL.
" There was a sound of revelry by night"* And in the Capital's vice-regal halls
The Banquet was prepared - and bright
Beam'd beauteous eyes within those joyous
walls
But, hark ! what startling blast the ear appals, And slays the mazy waltz, well nigh began - Alas! Alas! 'tis the Death-Trumpet calls,
To summons to the Grave poor mortal Man, In a vain shadow walketh he-his days a span.
II.
But ah ! amongst the giddy multitude,
That idly dwell around, could none be found
Who better could be spared than he who stood But one short hour before upon that holy
ground,
Where now he sleeps, untroubled by the sound Of lamentation for the virtuous Dead ?
Lo! what a weeping group is gathered round Yon honoured tomb - his final earthly bed, Until to realms above by blessed Spirits led.
III.
The hoary head that vouches lengthened years
The form mature of Manhood - and the bloom Of Youth, and cheek of Beauty, loveliest in
tears -
The Widow and the Orphan, - at that tomb Alike are seen to mourn th' untimely doom That called hence him, who loved to heal
The broken heart, and severed hearts, resume Their Union, bade; he did most kindly feel
For all others' woes, and laboured for their weal.
IV.
But there is one not of that weeping throng
Whose Sorrows must be sacred - see ! she bends
Her widowed head in resignation - Long
Hath she learnt to know, that He who sends His awful Judgments on the earth, hath ends
To us inscrutable - Shall we then mourn
His loss yet longer, since it surely tends
To his eternal gain ?- nor from that bourn Where he bath gone doth traveller return.
Sydney, June, 1836.
* This line is borrowed from "Childe Harold," and throughout the versification and style of that Poem has been attempted.