Weep not for those whom the veil of the tomb,
In life's happy morning, hath hid from our eyes,
Ere sin threw a blight o'er the spirit's young bloom,
Or earth had profaned what was born for the skies.
Mourn not for her, the young Bride of the Vale,[1]
Our gayest and loveliest, lost to us now,
Ere life's early lustre had time to grow pale,
And the garland of Love was yet fresh on her brow.
Oh, then was her moment, dear spirit, for flying
From this gloomy world, while its gloom was unknown--
And the wild hymns she warbled so sweetly, in dying,
Were echoed in Heaven by lips like her own.
Weep not for her--in her springtime she flew
To that land where the wings of the soul are unfurled;
And now, like a star beyond evening's cold dew,
Looks radiantly down on the tears of this world.
[1] This second verse, which I wrote long after the first, alludes to the
fate of a very lovely and amiable girl, the daughter of the late Colonel
Bainbrigge, who was married in Ashbourne church, October 81, 1815, and
died of a fever in a few weeks after. The sound of her marriage-bells
seemed scarcely out of our ears when we heard of her death. During her
last delirium she sung several hymns, in a voice even clearer and sweeter
than usual, and among them were some from the present collection,
(particularly, "There's nothing bright but Heaven,") which this very
interesting girl had often heard me sing during the summer.
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