Youth glows upon her blossom'd cheek, Glad beauty in her eye, And fond affections pure and meek Her every want supply: Why doth her glance so wildly rove Some fancied foe to find? What dark dregs stir her cup of love? @3Go ask the sickening mind!@1 They bear her where with cheering smile The hope of healing reigns For those whom morbid Fancy's wile In torturing bond constrains; Where Mercy spreads an angel-wing To do her Father's will, And heaven-instructed plucks the sting From Earth's severest ill. Yet o'er that sufferer's drooping head No balm of Gilead stole, Diseas'd Imagination spread Dark chaos o'er the soul; But recollected truths sublime Still fed Devotion's stream, And beings from a sinless clime Blent with her broken dream. Then came a coffin and a shroud, And many a bursting sigh, With shrieks of laughter long and loud, From those who knew not why; For she, whom Reason's fickle ray Oft wilder'd and distress'd Hush'd in unwonted slumber lay, A cold and dreamless rest, Think ye of Heaven! how glorious bright Will break its vision clear, On souls that rose from earthly night All desolate and drear; So ye who laid that stricken form Down to its willing sleep, Snatch'd like a flowret from the storm, @3Weep not as others weep.@1 | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF THE CHATTAHOOCHEE by SIDNEY LANIER EPITAPH (ON A COMMONPLACE PERSON WHO DIED IN BED) by AMY LEVY THE SOUND OF THE SEA; SONNET by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW THE EARLY PRIMROSE by HENRY KIRKE WHITE SONNET TO NIGHT by JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE SEVEN SAD SONNETS: 6. THE WANDERING ONE MAKES MUSIC by MARY REYNOLDS ALDIS |