Biography and Poetical Remains of the Late Margaret Miller Davidson ...Clark, Austin & Company, 1850 - 232 pages |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
angels Ballston beam beautiful bending bloom Boabdil bosom breast breath bright brother brow burst calm cheek cheerful child clouds cold dark Davidson dear mother death deep delight dread dream Dutchess County earth earthly Emily Erstein fading fair fair brow fancy farewell father fear feelings flowers gaze gentle glance glowing golden sun grief hand happy haste hath heart heaven heavenly hope hour Lake Champlain Lenore light look lyre Margaret MARGARET MILLER DAVIDSON martial music Melanie mighty mind mingled Morna morning mourn ne'er neath never night o'er pain pale pass'd Plattsburgh pleasure poetic pride pure rapture rest Rhine Saranac scene seem'd seemed sigh silent sister sleep smile soft soothe sorrow soul sparkling spirit stream sweet sweetly tears tempest thee thine thou art thought tone trembling uncon voice waves weep wild wings young youth
Popular passages
Page 109 - WHEN I can read my title clear To mansions in the skies, I bid farewell to every fear, And wipe my weeping eyes.
Page 50 - So dear to Heaven is saintly chastity, That, when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her, Driving far off each thing of sin and guilt, And in clear dream, and solemn vision, Tell her of things that no gross ear can hear, Till oft converse with heavenly habitants Begin to cast a beam on the outward shape, The unpolluted temple of the mind, And turns it by degrees to the soul's essence, Till all be made immortal.
Page 29 - ... judicious nurse, yet the soft and gentle voice of my little darling was more than medicine to my worn-out frame. If her delicate hand smoothed my pillow, it was soft to my aching temples, and her sweet smile would cheer me in the lowest depths of despondency. She would draw for me — read to me ; and often, when writing at her little table, would surprise me by some tribute of love, which never failed to operate as a cordial to my heart. At a time when my life was despaired of, she wrote the...
Page 206 - mid its varied records find A heart at ease with all mankind, A firm and self-approving mind! Grief, that had broken hearts less fine, Hath only served to strengthen thine; Time, that doth chill the fancy's play, Hath kindled thine with purer ray; And stern disease, whose icy dart Hath power to chill the shrinking heart, Has left thine warm with love and truth, As in the halcyon days of youth.
Page 128 - Who coverest thyself with light as with a garment; who stretches! out the heavens like a curtain: Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind...
Page 48 - I hovered upon the borders of the grave; and when I arose from this bed of pain, so feeble that I could not sustain my own weight, it was to witness the rupture of a blood-vessel in her lungs, caused by exertions to suppress a cough. Oh, it was agony to see her thus! I was compelled to conceal every appearance of alarm, lest the agitation of her mind should produce fatal consequences. As I seated myself by her, she raised her speaking eyes to mine with a mournful, inquiring gaze; and as she read...
Page 160 - By this means it had remained standing for several hundred years, in defiance of storms and earthquakes, while almost all other buildings of the Moors had fallen to ruin and disappeared. This spell, the tradition went on to say, would last until the hand on the outer arch should reach down and grasp the key, when the whole pile would tumble to pieces, and all the treasures buried beneath it by the Moors would be revealed.
Page 49 - Not a murmur escaped her lips," says her mother, " during her protracted sufferings. ' How are you, love? how have you rested during the night?' 'Well, dear mamma; I have slept sweetly.' I have been night after night beside her restless couch, wiped the cold dew from her brow, and kissed her faded cheek in all the agony of grief, while she unconsciously slept on; or if she did awake, her calm sweet smile, which seemed to emanate from heaven, has, spite of my reason, lighted my heart with hope.
Page 19 - Margaret, from the first dawnings of intellect, gave evidence of being no common child : her ideas and expressions were not like those of other children, and often startled by their precocity. Her sister's death had made a strong impression on her, and, though so extremely young, she already understood and appreciated Lucretia's character. An evidence of this, and of the singular precocity of thought and expression just noticed, occurred but a few months afterwards. As Mrs. Davidson was seated, at...
Page 32 - I have not written it yet."—" But how is this ! Do you make the dresses first, and then write the play to suit them ?"—" Oh !" replied she gaily, " the writing of the play is the easiest part of the preparation ; it will be ready before the dresses.