"Stern ruins Ploughshare drives elate
"Full on thy bloom
"Till crushed beneath the furrows weight
"Shall be thy doom.

"JOHN BIRD,
"whose Ashes are deposited
"under this Marble,
"died on the 2nd day of Fe-
"bruary, 1806, aged 37 Years

"The dust was once informed by the spirit of Genius and illuminated by the Beams of Science; these decayed lips once poured a stream of eloquence, original and forcible, pointed with Genius, Satire, and seasoned with Attick wit.

"No further seek his merits to disclose
"Or draw his frailties from their dread abode.

"--[John Bird was a famous Troy lawyer, an early settler and the first of the three husbands of Eunice Porter, the second wife of Colonel Albert Pawling. The inscription on this monument is barely legible.]" (square brackets in original)
"Survey conducted in 1923 by the Philip Schuyler Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution." http://www.onentofl.com/tcsnyrenTROYmida.html

The poem at the top "Stern ruin's Ploughshares" visible in the photo, is Robert Burns' "To a Mountain Daisy on Turning One Down with the Plough, in April, 1786."

The bottom poem "No further seek" (not visible or readable in the photo) transcribed by the DAR is from Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard."

"John Bird of Troy died Feby. 2d 806—aged 37. I visited his Tomb near Hart's Mills May 22d 1807. He is described as having been distinguished for Genius, Science, Eloquence & Wit, & then the Marble adds 'Nor further seek his Merits to disclose—or draw his Frailities [sic] from their dread abode.' N.B. He was distinguished as a Lawyer of Talent & caustic wit, but was violent in his Temper & profane in his Principles. He was a representative in Congress about 1802, quo?"
Roper, Donald M. "The Elite of the New York Bar as Seen from the Bench: James Kent's Necrologies." New York Historical Society Quarterly 56 (1972). 213.

Footnote to the above "quo?" states "Bird served in Congress from 1799 to 1801.