 | The Poems of Robert Bloomfield |  |
94
MARY'S GRAVE.
No child have I left, I must wander alone,
No light-hearted Mary to sing as I go,
Nor loiter to gather bright flowers newly blown;
She delighted, sweet maid, in these emblems of woe.
Then the stream glided by her, or playfully boil'd
O'er its rock-bed unceasing, and still it flows free;
But her infant life was arrested, unsoil'd
As the dew-drop, when shook by the wing of the bee.
No light-hearted Mary to sing as I go,
Nor loiter to gather bright flowers newly blown;
She delighted, sweet maid, in these emblems of woe.
Then the stream glided by her, or playfully boil'd
O'er its rock-bed unceasing, and still it flows free;
But her infant life was arrested, unsoil'd
As the dew-drop, when shook by the wing of the bee.
95
Sweet flowers were her treasures, and flowers shall be mine;
I bring them from Radnor's green hills to her grave:
Thus planted in anguish, oh let them entwine
O'er a heart once as gentle as Heav'n e'er gave.
Oh, the glance of her eye, when at mansions of wealth
I pointed, suspicious, and warn'd her of harm;
She smiled in content, 'midst the bloom of her health,
And closer and closer still hung on my arm.
I bring them from Radnor's green hills to her grave:
Thus planted in anguish, oh let them entwine
O'er a heart once as gentle as Heav'n e'er gave.
Oh, the glance of her eye, when at mansions of wealth
I pointed, suspicious, and warn'd her of harm;
She smiled in content, 'midst the bloom of her health,
And closer and closer still hung on my arm.
What boots it to tell of the sense she possess'd,
The fair buds of promise that mem'ry endears?
The mild dove, affection, was queen of her breast,
And I had her love, and her truth, and her tears;
She was mine. But she goes to the land of the good,
A change which I must, and yet dare, not deplore:
I'll bear the rude shock like the oak of the wood,
But the green hills of Radnor will charm me no more.
The fair buds of promise that mem'ry endears?
The mild dove, affection, was queen of her breast,
And I had her love, and her truth, and her tears;
96
A change which I must, and yet dare, not deplore:
I'll bear the rude shock like the oak of the wood,
But the green hills of Radnor will charm me no more.
| The Poems of Robert Bloomfield | |