A requiem for Charles Dickens - Poems of Zachariah Sutcliffe

This post is part of a series cataloguing the poems of Zachariah Sutcliffe, refer to the index for a poem listing and introduction to Sutcliffe.

The poem is on a loose sheet pasted into an album that this part of the State Library of Victoria's Sutcliffe archive [1].

The poem consists of six eleven line verses with the following rhyming structure, AABCDDBCEEC. The fourth, eighth and eleventh lines rhyme and are indented in the printed form. I have not yet found out what this rhyme type is called.

I have not been able to find the poem on Trove or elsewhere on the www.

The poem

A REQUIEM: IN MEMORY OF THE LATE CHARLES DICKENS

BY ZACHARIAH SUTCLIFFE.

When through the darkened air, 

Heavy with mute despair, 

Rose the sad funeral dirge

Mournfully swelling. 

Wilder and keener yet,- 

Can we that strain forget,- 

To the earth's farthest verge 

All its woe telling. 

For the illustrious one 

Who his day's work hath done

Past all excelling.

Thickly our tears may fall 

Over that sombre pall: 

Death bears his hostage bright

Far from our keeping;

While on life's battle-plain, 

Where shall we find again, 

One, in the cause of right, 

Such honors reaping?

Hero of mighty deeds! 

From which no victim bleeds, 

How vain our weeping.

Champion of earth's distressed, 

Want-bound and wealth-oppressed, 

Fighting the cause of those

None else defended; 

Shedding thy holy dower, 

Sun-like, in gladdening power, 

To soothe the bitter woes

Of the unfriended; 

Lifting to hope once more, 

Hearts on which long before 

Sorrow descended.

Bringing the gems that lie

'Midst all humanity 

Forth to the flash of day

Radiantly beaming- 

Forth to the eager throng, 

Who, as they surge along,

Meet on life's fevered way 

These jewels gleaming; 

Steadfast to honor still,

 'Gainst a world's tide of ill,

Man's faith redeeming.

Lightener of weary days,

When the worn spirit prays, 

Rest from the rack of thought

Voicelessly pleading. 

Thousands have turned to find 

Freedom for heart and mind 

In the sweet respite caught,

While thy works reading: 

Where the charmed pages hold 

Lessons of wisdom's gold 

Few pass unheeding.

Heart-speaker true and brave, 

Tears had no power to save, 

Words have no strength to tell

Our deep repining. 

Spirit of mirthful light! 

Dark looms the coming night, 

Still in this long farewell,

Some balm is twining; 

For we trust thou wilt rise, 

Bright in celestial skies, 

Evermore shining.

The event

Charles Dickens did on the 9th June and was buried on the 14th of June, curiously the papers did not devote much coverage to the events. So it is difficult to determine a writing time for Sutcliffe's poem. 

We will need to return to Charle Dickens to properly tell the story of Zachariah Sutcliffe, bit that can wait for another post.