Open for me the casket, please
For I want to see
Are the tears still there
In which he drowned
When he found
In his last year
Unloved was he?
And didn’t know!

What does such a one look like?
Who in life tried
Was tried and found wanting
Unloved, unrecognized
Who now has died
And died unmourned (for I am alone)

Open for me the casket please
I want to gaze
Upon the face of one now dead
Once of fair head
Whose birth was heralded with song.
I want to see if it is he
For I knew him vaguely
I want to see what one looks like
Who walked but left no footprints
Who lived but was unknown
Who was tried and found wanting
Unloved and alone
And who didn’t know
Now dead unheralded and unmourned (for I am alone)

(author unknown, 1910)