University of Virginia Library

LILIE SLEEPS.

[We saw, a few days since, an infant arrayed for the grave, with a profusion of bright and sweet flowers about it, that robbed it of all melancholy associations; among which the white lily was prominent, as if the beautiful and perishable plant claimed pleasant affinity with the Lilie at rest. Upon the casket in which the little one reposed was simply graven the words “Lilie sleeps,” thus omitting even the usual age and date of death, that have such a meaning of mortality about them. The following lines were suggested by the scene:—]

And loving hands have brought sweet flowers to strew
Around the couch where little Lilie lies;
Here are fair buds yet moist with morning dew,
And blossoms blushing with celestial dyes.
And Lilie sleeps!—mar not her peaceful rest,
But make her bed upon a bank of choicest bloom,—
Her beauteous form with kindred sweets invest,
To breathe around a wealth of rich perfume.
'Tis meet they mingle thus—the budding flower,
On which love's fondest, tenderest care was shed,
And gems fresh plucked from Flora's fairest bower
Ere yet the morning flush had from them fled;—
To melt away together from our view;
But not unheeded will they disappear,
For tender memory, with feeling true,
Will hold them in affection ever near.
And Lilie in her blooming shroud will come,
A floral vision to the tearful eye,
Such glory shedding o'er the sorrowing home,
That love will e'en forget that she did die.
There is no terror in the guise of death,
As earth and heaven in such sweet union twine,
When changed the cypress for the lily wreath,
To form a crown for innocence divine.