Judge Somers + 

How does it happen, tell me, + 

That I who was most erudite of lawyers, + 

Who knew Blackstone and Coke + 

Almost by heart, who made the greatest speech + 

The courthouse ever heard, and wrote + 

A brief that won the praise of Justice Breese⁠— + 

How does it happen, tell me, + 

That I lie here unmarked, forgotten, + 

While Chase Henry, the town drunkard, + 

Has a marble block, topped by an urn + 

Wherein Nature, in a mood ironical, + 

Has sown a flowering weed? + 