University of Virginia Library

MRS. LINCOLN'S LAMENTATION.

What is it for the breezes seem to wail,
The sylvan warblers carol nature's sighs,
For lo! he dies, but leaves behind his name
Eternal Lincoln! weep ye pensive bards,
Loud orators declaim with rills of tears,
For sorrow must attend the dol'rous scene!
Ye damsels of the city weep, O Washington,
Whence is our father fled, gone, gone forever!
Father Abraham the sample of faith,
Whence goest thou to ------.
Try the wonders of eternal worlds, but
Still we mourn, but we could not go with thee,
The lady of thy love aspires to thee.
Weep! O my soul, my quick pulse beat thy last,
Ye portals of immortal worlds fly wide,
Eternal messenger go tell my spouse,
To meet me at the threshold of the city,
For lo! I come in haste from nature's gloom,
Seraphic groups descend and waft me home!
O, Abraham, descend at once and open wide thy bosom,
Ye bright attendant bands escort me hence,
Let me look down on the sulphrous gulf,
And view the rich man with his blistered tongue,
The damned, the infernal homicide of peace,
While loud he calls and beckons for relief!
O, father Abraham, send down one drop
Of cooling water to appease the wound,
But ah! too late, the fratrid murderer cries,
My friend, my father Abram, bears me home;
I'm on my way, I'm on my way to heaven.
But oh! the scene is closed and leaves me drear,
Imagination's dream has passed away,
And I awake again, alas! to weep!
Surviving friends, my Abram is no more,
No more to see me till I pass away;
O strike the fatal primagenial blow,
Let me into choas and oblivion
Never more, never, hence to be a woman,
Or thus bereft of all the nature dear!
The lilies droop, the willows sadly weep,
The garden is divested of her grace;
For every scene is pendant as with grief,
And desolation spreads the city around.
The theatre's gloomy where he fell,
With doors and windows closed, where is then
The brave, the glorious, and the friend of man?
The grave is his asylum, death his friend,
At which from gloom the country rose to light,
On war's last eve the sun of glory sets,
The disk is called in gloom, the star of peace
Break forth in his expanse reflecting glory,
O'er a benighted hemisphere, he leaves
The blaze of day thrown back on every eye.