'Oh most delightful hour by man <br />Experienced here below, <br />The hour that terminates his span, <br />His folly and his woe! <br /> <br />'Worlds should not bribe me back to tread <br />Again life's dreary waste, <br />To see again my day o'erspread <br />With all the gloomy past. <br /> <br />'My home henceforth is in the skies, <br />Earth, seas, and sun, adieu! <br />All heaven unfolded to my eyes, <br />I have no sight for you.' <br /> <br />So spake Aspasio, firm possessed <br />Of faith's supporting rod, <br />Then breathed his soul into its rest, <br />The bosom of his God. <br /> <br />He was a man among the few <br />Sincere on virtue's side; <br />And all his strength from Scripture drew, <br />To hourly use applied. <br /> <br />That rule he prized, by that he feared, <br />He hated, hoped, and loved; <br />Nor ever frowned, or sad appeared, <br />But when his heart had roved. <br /> <br />For he was frail as thou or I, <br />And evil felt within: <br />But when he felt it, heaved a sigh, <br />And loathed the thought of sin. <br /> <br />Such lived Aspasio; and at last <br />Called up from earth to heaven, <br />The gulf of death triumphant passed, <br />By gales of blessing driven. <br /> <br />His joys be mine, each reader cries, <br />When my last hour arrives; <br />They shall be yours, my verse replies, <br />Such only be your lives.<br /><br />William Cowper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/stanzas-subjoined-to-the-yearly-bill-of-mortality-of-the-parish-of-all-saints-northampton-anno-domini-1789/
