OH! lightly, lightly tread! A holy thing is sleep, On the worn spirit shed, And eyes that wake to weep. A holy thing from Heaven, A gracious dewy cloud, A covering mantle given The weary to enshroud. Oh! lightly, lightly tread! Revere the pale still brow, The meekly-drooping head, The long hair's willowy flow. Ye know not what ye do, That call the slumberer back, From the world unseen by you Unto life's dim faded track. Her soul is far away, In her childhood's land, perchance, Where her young sisters play, Where shines her mother's glance. Some old sweet native sound Her spirit haply weaves; A harmony profound Of woods with all their leaves; A murmur of the sea, A laughing tone of streams. -- Long may her sojourn be In the music-land of dreams! Each voice of love is there, Each gleam of beauty fled, Each lost one still more fair -- Oh! lightly, lightly tread! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RIDDLE: MAN, STOOL, DOG by MOTHER GOOSE EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 20. EVER PRESENT by PHILIP AYRES TO HIS GRACE, GEORGE DUKE OF NORTHUMBERLAND by PHILIP AYRES EN TOUR; A SONG SEQUENCE: 3. GENOA by ALBERTA BANCROFT STANZAS WRITTEN IN PASSING THE AMBRACIAN GULF by GEORGE GORDON BYRON AUTOGRAPH OF YOUTH by MARTHA C. COCHRAN NORTH WIND by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK |