Now a good man, Joseph by name,
Of wealth and high renown,
In secret a disciple true,
Of Rama's ancient town,
Besought the Pilate grant to him
Permission to remove
The body of the Crucified,
Whom he had learned to love.
And then came Nicodemus,
With aloes and with myrrh--
Another who had been of Christ
A secret worshipper.
And these two men, who ne'er had made
Profession, great or small,
Prepared the sacred body for
An honored burial.
They wrapped it, with the spices,
In clean, white linen clothes;
According to the way in which
The Jews their dead dispose.
Then reverently laid it down
In Joseph's tomb--quite new,
Which he had hewn from out the rock,
His own last sleep in view.
