Fanny

We had a girl, a gentle girl,
    Her face to sober sweetness still'd ;
And mellow as the brooklet's purl
    Her heart In silver language rill'd.
From her calm eyes a quiet smile, 
    And from her softly curving lip, 
Could all our care of pain beguile, 
    Our pain of all its arrows strip.

We had no child to love beside, 
    And all we sought, of earthly good,
Was still to open for her, wide,
    The gates of noble Womanhood.
She stepp'd into its rosy porch;
    Such grace and sweetness in her shone,
The Angel of the Inverted Torch
    Straight led her to her heavenly throne.

0, Summer green, and Autumn glow, 
    How richly on the hills ye lay,
How faded into spectral snow
    While she to white death pass'd away!
0, darling Soul of all the scene,
    How melted from our pained view
Thy form as fresh as Summer's green,
    As fair as Autumn's mellow hue!

The Alder shakes its tassled head
    Renewed in Spring's wakening breath,
The Daisies nod before our tread, 
    Escaped the icy chain of death;
But blooming check and floating tress, 
    And eyes which mocked the stars before,
Return their purer loveliness
    To grace our silent home no more!

Yet day by day her calm Divine
    Comes mellowing down the gloom of lose,
More human-sweet and seraph-fine,
    Made pure from taint of earthly dross;
And when we lift our heavy eyes
    To see what hopes in each have growth,
Her form between us seems to rise, 
    And smile its blessing upon both.

We thought to cave her fit for earth, 
    To bless her with our parting breath;
But Heaven lay level to her worth, 
    While we must climb by pain and death.
Sho glided to her Angel sphere, 
    And through the rapture of her song, 
Sends back this word of strengthening cheer,
    "Earth-pain is short, but Heaven is long!"