Joseph T. Sweeney
There is no death
I tell you they have not died,
They live and breath with you;
They walk here at your side,
They tell you things are true.
Why dream of poppied sod
When you can feel their breath.
When flow’r and soul and God
Knows there is no death!
Death’s but an open door,
We move from room to room,
There is one life, no more;
No dying and no tomb.
Why seek ye them above,
Those that ye dear love?
The All of Good is Love,
The All of God is Here.
I tell you they have not died,
Their hands clasp yours and mine;
They are but glorified,
They have become divine.
They live! they know! they see!
They shout with every breath:
”Life is eternity!
There is no death!”
- Gordon Johnstone
Joseph T. Sweeney was born in Newport, Rhode Island in September of 1876. His father, an Irish immigrant was a laborer in the city. His mother, Mary, was born in Wales. The family would live at 12 Coddington Block. After his father died, his mother moved to NY City with Joseph and his younger son Augustus. Other brothers and sisters would stay behind, including his brother Patrick, who would serve as Chief of the Newport Police in the late 1920s.
In 1898, Sweeney would volunteer and serve with the 69th New York Infantry during the Spanish-American War. He would be promoted to 2nd. Lt before the end of the war. A year later, when war broke out in the Philippines, he would serve as an officer with the 43rd Infantry Regiment. In 1900, he would be praised as a hero for his actions in the war. He would be wounded more than once in the war.
from the June 9, 1900, Boston Globe
After the war, Sweeney would turn to acting and poetry and assume the name Gordon Johnstone.
from the April 13, 1902, Brooklyn Citizen
from the November 12, 1905, Brooklyn Eagle
His poetry would be set to music by a number of popular composers of the time.
His poems and the music they were set to would become very popular during World War 1
In March of 1926 it was announced that he had acquired the rights to the popular play “Sun Up” with Werner Janssen. Their goal was to turn the play into a musical.
Hear another song with his lyrics.
from the March 19, 1926, Brooklyn Times Union
He would become sick with pneumonia and die suddenly on April 21, 1926.
from the April 24, 1926, Newport Mercury
He was so beloved by the soldiers of the 43rd Regiment, that they held their 1932 reunion in Newport with special ceremonies at his grave.
from the May 22, 1932, Brooklyn Times Union
He is buried in St. Mary’s Catholic Cemetery in Newport, Rhode Island.
”There is no death” is inscribed on his marker.
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