SEXTON! Martha’s dead and gone;
Toll the bell! toll the bell!
Her weary hands their labor cease;
Good night, poor Martha,– sleep in peace!
Toll the bell!
Sexton! Martha ‘s dead and gone;
Toll the bell! toll the bell!
For many a year has Martha said,
“I’m old and poor,– would I were dead!”
Toll the bell!
Sexton! Martha’s dead and gone;
Toll the bell! toll the bell!
She’ll bring no more, by day or night,
Her basket full of linen white.
Toll the bell!
Sexton! Martha’s dead and gone;
Toll the bell! toll the bell!
‘Tis fitting she should lie below
A pure white sheet of drifted snow.
Toll the bell!
Sexton! Martha’s dead and gone;
Toll the bell! toll the bell!
Sleep, Martha, sleep, to wake in light,
Where all the robes are stainless white.
Toll the bell!
In my opinion Martha shows that Holmes had a sensitive side to his writing.