This is the twelfth item from Robert Dymond’s book: “Things New and Old Concerning the Parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor and its Neighbourhood” (1876)
LINES ON A GRAVESTONE, WITHOUT INSCRIPTION, IN THE CHAPEL YARD AT DARTMOOR PRISON.
Beneath this plain and silent stone,
Which hath no name engraved thereon-
No words of Holy Writ, to tell
To passers by what here befell.
The convict’s worn and ragged form
Lies sheltered from life’s bitter storm.
That storm of sin and misery,
Now hushed, hath set the prisoner free.
No other sickness shook his frame
But anguish for his tainted name ;
He droop’d whene’er he thought upon
His distant wife, his helpless son.
What though his frailties dreadful were,
His punishment was hard to bear;
Cut off, like Cain, from every tie
That sweetens life, ’twas bliss to die.
Cast no uncharitable stone
At him, as if he sinned alone ;
But weep a brother’s fate, for grace
Alone hath saved thee from his place.