What words avail to honour friends departed,
    Gone from the gatherings which so long they graced? 
  What phrase seems fit when comrades loyal-hearted
    Mourn a loved presence late by death displaced?

  No formal elegiacs fashioned coldly,
    Beseem the memory of that manly soul,
  Whose simple, downright spirit trod so boldly
    Life’s most sequestered ways from start to goal.

  Not rank’s trim pleasaunce, nor parades of fashion
    Tempted his genius; his the great highway
  Where, free from courtly pride and modish passion,
    Toil tramps, free humours crowd, rough wastrels stray.

  Therein his magic pencil laboured gladly,
    Fixing for ever on his chosen page
  In forms fond memory now reviews so sadly
    The crowded pageant of a passing age.

  What an array!  How varied a procession! 
    The humours of the parlour, shop, and street;
  Philistia’s every calling, craft, profession,
    Cockneydom’s cheery cheek and patter fleet.

  Scotch dryness, Irish unction and cajolery,
    Waiterdom’s wiles, Deacondom’s pomp of port;
  Rustic simplicity, domestic drollery,
    The freaks of Service and the fun of Sport;

  And all with such true art, so fine, unfailing,
    Of touch so certain, and of charm so fresh,
  As to lend dignity to Cabmen railing,
    To fustianed clods and fogies full of flesh.

  Nor human humours only; who so tender
    Of touch when sunny Nature out-of-doors
  Wooed his deft pencil?  Who like him could render
    Meadow or hedgerow, turnip-field, or moor?

  Snowy perspective, long suburban winding
    Of bowery road-way, villa-edged and trim. 
  Iron-railed city street, where gas-lamps blinding
    Glare through the foggy distance dense and dim?

  All with that broad free force, whose fascination
    All felt, and artists most, that dexterous sleight
  Which gave our land the unchallenged consummation
    Of graphic mastery in Black-and-White.

  Pleasant to dwell on, and a proud possession,
    Now the tired hand that shaped that world is still,
  Leaving an ineffaceable impression
    Upon the age that fired its force and skill.

  Honoured abroad as loved at home, how ample,
    The tribute to that modest spirit paid! 
  To pushing quackery a high example,
    A calm rebuke to egotist parade!

  Frank, loyal, unobtrusive, simple-hearted,
    Loving his book, his pipe, his song, his friend,
  Peaceful he lived and peacefully departed,
    A gentle life-course, with a gracious end.

  Irreparable loss to Art, deep sorrow
    To those his comrades, who so loved the man,
  And who had hoped for many a sunny morrow
    To greet that gallant spirit in the van.

  That tall, spare form, that curl-crowned head, the knitting
    Of supple hands behind it as he sat,
  That quaint face-wrinkling smile like sunshine flitting,
    The droll, dry comment, the quotation pat;