Speaks for itself;-an Infant there doth rest, The sheltering Hillock is the Mother's grave. Than beauty for the fairest face can do ; Grieving for sin, and penitential tears Shed when the clouds had gathered and distained The spotless ether of a maiden life ; If these may make a hallowed spot of earth More holy in the sight of God or Man; Ah! what a warning for a thoughtless Man, Could field or grove, or any spot of earth, Shew to his eye an image of the pangs Which it hath witnessed, render back an echo... Of the sad steps by which it hath been trod! There, by her innocent Baby's precious grave, Yea, doubtless, on the turf that roofs her own, The Mother oft was seen to stand, or kneel Upon the pathway, of her mournful tread ; Nor of that pace with which she once had moved Upon the mountains wet with morning dew, In the prime hour of sweetest scents and airs. The form, port, motions of this Cottage-girl An Elm distinguished by that festive name, Of giving welcome to the first of May By dances round its trunk.-And if the sky Was hapless Ellen.-No one touched the ground She loved,—and fondly deemed herself beloved. The road is dim, the current unperceived, The weakness painful and most pitiful, By which a virtuous Woman, in pure youth, Such fate was hers.-The last time Ellen danced, And small birds singing to their happy mates. Among the faded woods; but these blithe notes Of what I know, and what we feel within. At morn and evening, from that naked perch, A time-beguiling ditty, for delight Of his fond partner, silent in the nest. -"Ah why," said Ellen, sighing to herself, "Why do not words, and kiss, and solemn pledge; "And nature that is kind in Woman's breast, "And reason that in Man is wise and good, "And fear of him who is a righteous Judge, 66 Why do not these prevail for human life, "To keep two Hearts together, that began "Their spring-time with one love, and that have need "Of mutual pity and forgiveness, sweet "To grant, or be received, while that poor Bird, 66 -O come and hear him! Thou who hast to me PP "Been faithless, hear him, though a lowly Creature, "One of God's simple children that yet know not "The universal Parent, how he sings "As if he wished, the firmament of Heaven "Should listen, and give back to him the voice "Of his triumphant constancy and love; Such was the tender passage, not by me Repeated without loss of simple phrase, Which I perused, even as the words had been Committed by forsaken Ellen's hand To the blank margin of a Valentine, Bedropped with tears. "Twill please you to be told In lonely reading found a meek resource. Or, in the garden, pored upon her book |