Yet, while thy place of weeping still While on thy name, 'midst wood and hill, The quiet sunshine sleeps, And touches, in each graven line, Of reverential thought a sign; Can I, while yet these tokens wear Think of the love embodied there, A perish'd thing, the joy and flower Not so -I will not bow me so, Life's farewell words to bear. Mother and child!-your tears are pastSurely your hearts have met at last! VOL. V.-20 THE GRAVE OF A POETESS. "Ne me plaignez pas-si vous saviez I STOOD beside thy lowly grave; All happy things that love the sun Fresh leaves were on the ivy-bough And mournful grew my heart for thee, 'Extrinsic interest has lately attached to the fine scenery of Woodstock, near Kilkenny, on account of its having been the last residence of the author of Psyche. Her grave is one of many in the church-yard of the village. The river runs smoothly by. The ruins of an ancient abbey that has been partially converted into a church, reverently throw their mantle of tender shadow over it. Tales by the O'Hara Family. Mournful, that thou wert slumbering low, With a dread curtain drawn Between thee and the golden glow Of this world's vernal dawn. Parted from all the song and bloom The bird, the insect on the wing, But then, ev'n then, a nobler thought Surely on lovelier things, I said, Thou must have look'd ere now, Than all that round our pathway shed Odours and hues below. The shadows of the tomb are here, Yet beautiful is earth! What seest thou then where no dim fear, No haunting dream, hath birth? Here a vain love to passing flowers Thou hast left sorrow in thy song, A voice not loud, but deep! Where couldst thou fix on mortal ground NOTES. NOTE 1. When darkness from the vainly-doting sight, "Wheresoever you are, or in what state soever you be, it sufficeth me you are mine. Rachel wept, and would not be comforted, because her children were no more. And that, indeed, is the remediless sorrow, and none else!”—From a letter of Arabella Stuart's to her husband.-See Curiosities of Literature. NOTE 2. Death!-what, is death a lock'd and treasured thing, "And if you remember of old, I dare die.-Consider what the world would conceive, if I should be violently enforced to do it." ·Fragments of her Letters. NOTE 3. And her lovely thoughts from their cells found way, In the sudden flow of a plaintive lay. A Greek bride, on leaving her father's house, takes leave of her friends and relatives frequently in extemporaneous verse.— Fauriel's Chants Populaires de la Grèce Moderne. NOTE 4. And loved when they should hate—like thee, Imelda. The tale of Imelda is related in Sismondi's Histoire des Republiques Italiennes. Vol. iii. p. 443. NOTE 5. Father of ancient waters, roll ! "Father of waters," the Indian name for the Mississippi. NOTE 6. And to the Fairy's fountain in the glade. A beautiful fountain near Domreni, believed to be haunted by fairies, and a favourite resort of Jeanne d'Arc in her childhood. NOTE 7. But loveliest far amidst the revel's pride, Was she, the Lady from the Danube side. The Princess Pauline Schwartzenberg. The story of her fate is beautifully related in L'Allemagne. Vol. iii. p. 336. 20* |