I WOULD NOT LIVE ALWAY.

I looked upon the fair young flowers

That in our gardens bloom,

Gazed on their winning loveliness,

And then upon the tomb;

I looked upon the smiling earth,

The blue and cloudless sky,

And murmured in my spirit's depths,

“O I can never die!”

I heard my sister's joyous laugh,

As she danced lightly by,

Her heart was glad with love and hope,

Its pulse with youth beat high;

I sought my mother's quiet smile,

She fondly drew me nigh,

And still I said within my heart,

“O I can never die!”

Stern winter came,— the fairy flowers

Were swept by storms away,

And swiftly passed the verdant bloom

Of summer's lovely day;

My mother's smile grew more serene,

And brighter was her eye,

And now I know her only as

An angel in the sky.

And sorrow's wing had cast a shade

Upon my sister's smile,

Had checked the voice of gladsome mirth,

And bounding step the while;

And when the bright spring came again,

And clouds forsook the sky,

Then I knelt down and thanked my God

There was a time to die.