Elegiac Stanzas

She hath gone in the spring-time of life,
     Ere her sky had been dimmed by a cloud,
While her heart with the rapture of love was yet rife, 
     And the hopes of her youth were unbowed-
From the lovely, who loved her too well—
     From the Heart that had grown to her own—
From the sorrow which late o'er her young spirit fell, 
     Like a dream of the night she hath flown;
And the earth hath received to its bosom its trust—
Ashes to ashes, and dust unto dust.

The Spring, in its loveliness drest,
     Will return with its music-winged hours,
And, kissed by the breath of the sweet South-west, 
     The buds shall burst out into flowers;
And the flowers her grave-sod above—
     Though the sleeper beneath recks it not-
Shall thickly be strown by the hand of Love,
     To cover with beauty the spot-
Meet emblems are they of the pure one and bright, 
Who faded and fell with so early a blight.

Ay, the Spring will return— but the blossom
     That bloomed in our presence the sweetest,
By the Spoiler is borne from the cherishing bosom,—
     The loveliest of all and the fleetest!
The music of stream and of bird
     Shall come back when the winter is o'er;
But the voice that was dearest to us shall be heard
     In our desolate chambers no more!
The sunlight of May on the waters shall quiver—
     The light of her eye hath departed for ever !

As the bird to its sheltering nest,
     When the storm on the hills is abroad,
So her spirit hath flown from this world of unrest 
     To repose on the bosom of God !
Where the sorrows of earth never more 
     May fling o'er its brightness a stain;
Where, in rapture and love, it shall ever adore,
     With a gladness unmingled with pain;
And its thirst shall be slaked by the waters which spring,
     Like a river of light, from the Throne of THE KING!

There is weeping on earth for the lost!
     There is bowing in grief to the ground!
But rejoicing and praise mid the sanctified host, 
     For a spirit in Paradise found!
Though brightness hath passed from the earth, 
     Yet a star is new-born in the sky,
And a soul hath gone home to the land of its birth,
     Where are pleasures and fulness of joy!
And a new harp is strung, and a new song is given.