Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Prescience

By Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836–1907)

THE NEW moon hung in the sky, the sun was low in the west,

And my betrothed and I in the church-yard paused to rest—

Happy maiden and lover, dreaming the old dream over:

The light winds wandered by, and robins chirped from the nest.

And lo! in the meadow-sweet was the grave of a little child,

With a crumbling stone at the feet and the ivy running wild—

Tangled ivy and clover folding it over and over:

Close to my sweetheart’s feet was the little mound up-piled.

Stricken with nameless fears, she shrank and clung to me,

And her eyes were filled with tears for a sorrow I did not see:

Lightly the winds were blowing, softly her tears were flowing—

Tears for the unknown years and a sorrow that was to be!