For Bessie's Birthday

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!”