Classic Poem

Dear Tresses! ah, your sombre glow
Renews my Tears, but sooths my Woe!
Ye have escaped the mouldering Grave,
Again before my eyes you wave,
I see them! to my lips they're press'd,
I hold them to my anxious breast!
But, ah! they ne'er again will flow
Upon her Neck of healthful glow,
Ne'er will they shade again her cheek,
Where nature bloom'd in blushes meek.
How have I seen this ringlet play,
And this, upon her forehead stray,
This, hanging o'er her azure eye
Like fleeting clouds that veil the sky,
And these, upon her shoulder fell,
And these would on her bosom dwell!
Ah! though ye ne'er again will deck
Her modest brow, or veil her neck,
Yet still possess your beauties power,
To please beyond Life's hasty hour!
A Mother saves them from the grave,
A Mother's pen from death shall save
Her Memory whom they once adorned,
Though seen few years, for Ever mourned!
Yes Time, Elizabeth, shall tell,
How like a Flow'ret pluck'd you fell,
As gently it unfolds its bloom
In early Spring, unknown its doom,
And to the Morn reveals its sweets,
But Noontide Radiance never greets!
As o'er some beauteous Garden's pride
The Dawn its silver light throws wide,
Its sweet beam spreads from Flower to Flower,
Arriving through a scented shower,
And, as fresh rays around them fly,
Awakes in each a purer dye,
The L ILLIES open all around
The forms that snowy veils had bound,
And waving graceful to the beam,
They greet the light's enlivening stream—
But ah! the seal of F ATE'S imprest,
And One is chosen from the rest.
Ere the meridian hour of day,
Whilst OTHER Lillies greet its ray,
And proudly lift their lustrous heads,
So sweetly shining o'er the beds,
T HIS Lilly, by some ruthless knife
Is severed from the stem of life!
Vain were its charms so early burst,
Day's Lord its fragrance never nursed.
The setting Sun glows through the air
And the lost Lilly is not there—
Oh! Emblem of the sudden blow
That bent my darling's graces low!
Now must the setting sun illume
My sweet departed dear-one's Tomb!
Yon late rais'd funeral pile behold,
Dart there thy brightest rays of gold,
Bid there thy richest beams descend
There every glowing beauty blend.
For, your beauties she could taste!
To meet your gilded ribble haste,
Athwart it raptured glances throw,
And hail it with extatic glow!
And when your lingering gleam's withdrawn,
And each dun vestige leaves the lawn,
Let Stars, to view them oft she'd roam!
Shed their pure lustre o'er her Tomb.
For she was purity refined,
Where Taste and Genius had combined
To raise a lofty sense, and show
What Spells could from their Union flow!
And Spells o'er all her actions hung,
They deck'd her eye, they graced her tongue,
Amidst her Dance they flew around,
In every step, in every bound;
They glitter'd in the lucid tear,
Which to her fringed lid so clear
Would oft from tender sources steal
To prove how well her Heart could feel!
My Child! since thou didst cease to breathe
I could not form Poetic Wreath,
Till now, my swoln Heart could not bear
My Votive Tablet to prepare!
But now, when yonder Pile is lost,
Each monumental fragment tost
In crumbling atoms through the air,
Thee shall defeated ruin spare!
Time's fateful finger shall delay
To fret thy cherish'd name away.
From Cypress and from Yew around,
O'ershadowing the hallow'd ground,
Shall Pity, smiling, Garlands weave—
Ah! Smile of Sorrow how you grieve!
And, hanging them on every tree
Shall say, Eliza, These to Thee!