The first half of this fragment may seem to the reader borrowed from the
essay on Rural Funerals in the fourth number of "The Sketch-book." The
lines were, however, written more than a year before that number
appeared. The poem, unfinished as it is, would hardly have been admitted
into this collection, had not the author been unwilling to lose what had
the honor of resembling so beautiful a composition.
Page 43.