The Devil's Dictionary: Grave

Beside a lonely grave I stood —
With brambles 'twas encumbered;
The winds were moaning in the wood,
Unheard by him who slumbered,

A rustic standing near, I said:
"He cannot hear it blowing!"
"'Course not," said he: "the feller's dead —
He can't hear nowt [sic] that's going."

"Too true," I said; "alas, too true —
No sound his sense can quicken!"
"Well, mister, wot is that to you? —
The deadster ain't a-kickin'."

I knelt and prayed: "O Father, smile
On him, and mercy show him!"
That countryman looked on the while,
And said: "Ye didn't know him."