Married

Our beautiful Maggie was married to-day—
     Beautiful Maggie, with soft brown hair,
     Whose shadows fall o’er a face as fair
As the snowy blooms of early May;
We have kissed her lops and sent her away,
     With many a blessing and many a prayer,
The pet of our house who was married to-day

The sunshine is gone from the old South Room
     Where she say through the long bright summer hours;
     And the odor is gone from the window flowers.
And something is lost of their delicate bloom,
And a shadow creeps over the house with its gloom;
     A shadow that over our Paradise lowers,
For we see her no more in the old South Room.

I thought that the song of the robin, this eve,
     As he sang to his mate on the sycamore tree,
     Had minors of madness to temper its glee,
As if he for the loss of our darling did grieve,
And asked, “Where is Maggie?” and, “Why did she leave?
     “The maiden who carolled sweet duets with me?”
For she mocked not the song of the robin this eve.

The pictures seem dim where they hang on the wall’
     Though they cost but a trifle they always looked fair,
     Whether lamplight or sunlight illumined them there—
I think ‘twas her presence that brightened them all;
Since Maggie no longer can come to our call,
     With her eyes full of laughter, unshadowed by care,
The pictures seem dim where they hang on the wall.

I lounge through the garden—I stand by the gate—
     She stood there to greet me last eve, at this hour.
     Every eve, through the summer, in sunshine or shower,
Just stood by the postern my coming to wait,
Dear Maggie, her heart with its welcome elate,
     To give me a smile, and a kiss and a flower;
Ah! when will she greet me again by the gate?

She loved us and left us—she loves, and is gone
     With the one she loves best, as his beautiful bride!
     How fondly he calls her his joy and his pride,
Our joy and our pride, whom he claims as his own!
But can he, like us, prize the heart he has won—?
     The heart that now trustingly throbs by his side,
God knows!—and we know that—she loves and is gone!