The Graves of a Household
They grew in beauty, side by side,
They fill’d one home with glee;
Their graves are sever’d, far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.
The same fond mother bent at night
O’er each fair sleeping brow;
She had each folded flower in sight,
Where are those dreamers now?
One, midst the forests of the west,
By a dark stream is laid,
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one,
He lies where pearls lie deep;
He was the lov’d of all, yet none
O’er his low bed may weep.
One sleeps where southern vines are drest
Above the noble slain:
He wrapt his colours round his breast,
On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one o’er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fann’d;
She faded midst Italian flowers,
The last of that bright band.
And parted thus they rest, who play’d
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they pray’d
Around one parent knee!
They that with smiles lit up the hall,
And cheer’d with song the hearth,
Alas! for love, if thou wert all,
And nought beyond, oh earth!
