Poem by Felicia Dorothea Hemans

The Grave of a Poetess

I STOOD beside thy lowly grave;
  Spring odors breathed around,
And music, in the river wave,
  Passed with a lulling sound.

All happy things that love the sun
  In the bright air glanced by,
And a glad murmur seemed to run
  Through the soft azure sky.

Fresh leaves were on the ivy bough
  That fringed the ruins near;
Young voices were abroad, but thou
  Their sweetness couldst not hear.

And mournful grew my heart for thee!
  Thou in whose woman’s mind
The ray that brightens earth and sea,
  The light of song, was shrined.

Mournful, that thou wert slumbering low,
  With a dread curtain drawn
Between thee and the golden glow
  Of this world’s vernal dawn.

Parted from all the song and bloom
  Thou wouldst have loved so well,
To thee the sunshine round thy tomb
  Was but a broken spell.

The bird, the insect on the wing,
  In their bright reckless play,
Might feel the flush and life of spring,—
  And thou wert passed away.

But then, e’en then, a nobler thought
  O’er my vain sadness came;
The immortal spirit woke, and wrought
  Within my thrilling frame.

Surely on lovelier things, I said,
  Thou must have looked ere now,
Than all that round our pathway shed
  Odors and hues below.

The shadows of the tomb are here,
  Yet beautiful is earth!
What seest thou, then, where no dim fear,
  No haunting dream, hath birth?

Here a vain love to passing flowers
  Thou gavest; but where thou art
The sway is not with changeful hours,—
  There love and death must part.

Thou hast left sorrow in thy song,
  A voice not loud but deep!
The glorious bowers of earth among,
  How often didst thou weep?

Where couldst thou fix on mortal ground
  Thy tender thoughts and high?	
Now peace the woman’s heart hath found,
  And joy the poet’s eye.

1. Joan of Arc in Rheims
2. The Music of St. Patrick’s
3. Eryri Wen
4. Lines Written for the Album at Rosanna
5. A Farewell to Wales

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