I grieve that you have flown away
From our delightful land and Bay,
And the sweet fields you move among
When I was young as you are young,
And from my Poet heart I sung,
The song of “Bonny Bessie Gray”!
How oft’ner now the birthday bell
Ring out a year, and sounds the Knell
O vanished loves who wait unseen
And waft us loving thoughts between
One cloud-land and this blue screen
Wherein their happy spirits dwell,
They walk among us and are glad
When we remember joys we had
In fellowships that are no more;
And they remember, when before
Their ingress to that golden shore
We saw their fading and were sad –
By joy and sorrow doubly kin
The flowers that Time hath plucked we win.
As o’er the emerald wall we bend
To clasp in thought each silent friend
Whose lives a fragrant blessing send
Across the bounds that fold them in.
The leaves expand, the robins sing,
And daring flowers proclaim the Spring;
Life-bringing Sylphiads as they pass
Over the dead and withered grass,
Before our grief can cry “Alas!”
The song of Resurrection bring.
All glories of the opening year,
And souls of watchers hovering near
Join tones in winds and waters heard, —
To greet thee with this stirring word,
“Good cheer, beloved Bess! Good Cheer!”
For Bessie's Birthday