previous next


The death of the Maiden.


By H. M. C., of South Carolina.

‘ Through a forest here and sober,
In the golden clad October,
Autumn winds were softly sighing,
Summer leaflets falling, flying,
Lying dying, everywhere,

I was wandering — slowly walking:
I was wooing — lowly talking:
(Ah! it seems but yet so lately)
With a maiden, lad and stately.
With a maiden frail and fair.

How she lingered as the listened!
How her eyes with tear-drops glistened,
All her brow and bosom blushing;
Came her words so gently gushing--
"Take me, love me, I am thine"

Oh! those words were whispered lowly
Oh! that vow — it seemed so holy,
As a vesper psalm, so salutary,
Falling sweetly, falling faintly,
As a psalmody divine.

Sweet those moments of our meeting.
Sweet, though few and far too fleeting
Halcyon hours of golden dreaming
All of life with beauty teeming,
In those glorious golden hours.

Blissful were the days we squandered,
Peaceful all the ways we wandered--
Through the woods and meadows mellow,
Through the waving fields of yellow,
Through the many autumn flowers.

Came then sickness, and in anguish.
Day by day, I watched her languish;
Watched her waning watched her wasting;
Out the agency of talling.
Those mad moments of despair.

Vain were all the arise of healing;
Slight was o'er her beauty stealing;
Vain my walling, vain my weeping;
Cruel death came creeping, creeping,
Caring not that she was fair.

After one long night of sorrow,
Ere the dawning of the morrow;
From the tapers dimly burning,
Softly to the maiden turning
Something whispered--"She is dead!"

Doubling, fearing, still uncertain,
Dreading yet to lift the curtain,
Something seemed to hover round her;
Angels then I knew had found her;
Knew I then her soul had fled.

From her lifeless form they bore me,
From her cold embrace they bore me,
But our souls they cannot sever,
We shall live again forever,
Aye forever — hand in hand.

Time is flowing, time is flowing;
On her grave the grass is growing,
Waves the willow o'er her weeping;
But her sainted soul is sleeping,
Sweetly in the Spirit Land.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
South Carolina (South Carolina, United States) (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
October (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: