MARY.

Three days before my Mary's death,

We walk'd by Grassmere shore;

“Sweet Lake!” she said with faultering breath,

“I ne'er shall see thee more!”

Then turning round her languid head,

She look'd me in the face;

And whisper'd, “When thy friend is dead,

Remember this lone place.”

Vainly I struggled at a smile,

That did my fears betray;

It seem'd that on our darling isle

Foreboding darkness lay.

My Mary's words were words of truth;

None now behold the Maid;

Amid the tears of age and youth,

She in her grave was laid.

Long days, long nights, I ween, were past

Ere ceased her funeral knell;

But to the spot I went at last

Where she had breath'd “farewell!”

Methought, I saw the phantom stand

Beside the peaceful wave;

I felt the pressure of her hand —

— Then look'd towards her grave.

Fair, fair beneath the evening sky

The quiet churchyard lay:

The tall pine-grove most solemnly

Hung mute above her clay.

Dearly she loved their arching spread,

Their music wild and sweet,

And, as she wished on her death-bed,

Was buried at their feet.

Around her grave a beauteous fence

Of wild flowers shed their breath,

Smiling like infant innocence

Within the gloom of death.

Such flowers from bank of mountain-brook

At eve we wont to bring,

When every little mossy nook

Betray'd returning Spring.

Oft had I fixed the simple wreath

Upon her virgin breast;

But now such flowers as form'd it, breathe

Around her bed of rest.

Yet all within my silent soul,

As the hush'd air was calm;

The natural tears that slowly stole,

Assuaged my grief like balm.

The air that seem'd so thick and dull

For months unto my eye;

Ah me! how bright and beautiful

It floated on the sky!

A trance of high and solemn bliss

From purest ether came;

‘ Mid such a heavenly scene as this,

Death is an empty name!

The memory of the past return'd

Like music to my heart,—

It seem'd that causelessly I mourn'd,

When we were told to part.

“God's mercy, to myself I said,

To both our souls is given —

To me, sojourning on earth's shade,

To her — a Saint in Heaven!”