 | Redwald |  |
For many a day from that unhappy hour
Did Edith lay, o'ercome with sickness' pow'r,
And long her anxious friends in anguish mourn'd
Ere to her faded cheek the rose return'd.
And now fresh grief replac'd her mother's care,
Her father sunk in sadness and despair,
That thus his only child was doom'd to prove
The pangs of struggling 'gainst unworthy love,
And he the cause! pale, dying as he laid,
He summon'd to his side the weeping maid,
And sorrowing Ivan, too, his call obey'd,
When thus he spoke: “My child! alas, too late
“Repentance beams upon me for your fate,
“For all your grief to me the cause you owe,
“Too long I've liv'd to load my child with woe!
“My broken vow to Ivan's gen'rous sire,
“Has drawn upon me Heaven's indignant ire:
“But yet, altho' I err'd, my ev'ry care
“Was still for thee—then hear my latest pray'r—
“Be Ivan's wife, no more his bliss deny,
“So shall thy father in contentment die!”
Did Edith lay, o'ercome with sickness' pow'r,
And long her anxious friends in anguish mourn'd
Ere to her faded cheek the rose return'd.
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Her father sunk in sadness and despair,
That thus his only child was doom'd to prove
The pangs of struggling 'gainst unworthy love,
And he the cause! pale, dying as he laid,
He summon'd to his side the weeping maid,
And sorrowing Ivan, too, his call obey'd,
When thus he spoke: “My child! alas, too late
“Repentance beams upon me for your fate,
“For all your grief to me the cause you owe,
“Too long I've liv'd to load my child with woe!
“My broken vow to Ivan's gen'rous sire,
“Has drawn upon me Heaven's indignant ire:
“But yet, altho' I err'd, my ev'ry care
“Was still for thee—then hear my latest pray'r—
“Be Ivan's wife, no more his bliss deny,
“So shall thy father in contentment die!”
| Redwald | |