When I beneath the Cold, Red Earth Lay me then gently in my narrow dwelling, am Sleeping. Thou gentle heart! And, though thy bosom should with grief be swelling, Let no tear start; It were in vain-for time hath long been knelling Sad one, depart! WILLIAM MOTHERWELL A Poet's Epitaph. STOP, mortal! Here thy brother lies- His books were rivers, woods, and skies, OVER THE RANGE. 561 Sin met thy brother everywhere! And is thy brother blamed? From passion, danger, doubt, and care, He no exemption claimed. The meanest thing, earth's feeblest worm, But, honoring in a peasant's form The equal of the great, He blessed the steward, whose wealth makes The poor man's little, more; Yet loathed the haughty wretch that takes From plundered labor's store. A hand to do, a head to plan, A heart to feel and dare— Tell man's worst foes, here lies the man It is not that my lot is low That makes this silent tear to flow; In woods and glens I love to roam, Yet when the silent evening sighs The autumn leaf is sere and dead It floats upon the water's bed; I would not be a leaf, to die The woods and winds, with sullen wail, Yet in my dreams a form I view, HENRY KIRKE WHITE. A Lament. SWIFTER far than summer's flight, Swifter far than youth's delight, Swifter far than happy night, Art thou come and gone; As the earth when leaves are dead, As the night when sleep is sped, As the heart when joy is fled, I am left alone, alone. O Christ of the seven wounds, who look'dst through the dark To the face of thy mother! consider, I pray, With a face pale as stone, to say something to How we common mothers stand desolate, mark, Whose sons, not being Christs, die with eyes turned away, And no last word to say! What then? Do not mock me. Ah, ring your bells low, And burn your lights faintly! My country there, Above the star pricked by the last peak of snow, My Italy's there,— with my brave civic pair, To disfranchise despair. |