Twas Lately Said In Open Court Poem by Emily Pfeiffer

'Twas lately said in open court
By one, the first of legal lights,
That malice with the dead might sport
At will, for 'dead men had no rights;'
That were it not from wrong to save
The quick, the body could affirm
No title even to a grave,
If left abandoned to the worm.
The doubting heart within me died;
I thought upon a distant spot,
I thought of two where side by side
Their bodies lay, and they were not.
When suddenly there rose before,
There flashed upon my inward eye,
A face that I shall see no more
In fainter light beneath the sky;
And flickering over all the face
There played a smile, the merry flame
Of such a joy as left no place
For care of earthly name or claim;
A smile of light and life so full,
Its mirth o'erflowed me as it spread,
In frank surprise that men how dull
Soever, could account him dead!