'At last he is dead'
So the wondering, horror-struck neighbours said,
A skilful touch of his knife
Has cut the thread of a wasted life
He has reached the end of the downward road,
And rushed unbidden to meet his God,
Over every duty past every tie,
Unwarned, unhindered, he rushed along,
Through the wild license of sin. and wrong,
And into the silent eternity
Relax thy anguished watch, O wife
And fold thy hands--and yet--and yet,
After all the tears which thou hast wept,
Through nights when happier mortals slept,
Thou only wilt weep with fond regret,
Over the corpse of the hopeless dead
For the cause accursed, of drink he has bled,
For that cause he lived and suffered and died
Many deaths in one horrible life,--
The deat...