Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Ireland: Vol. V. 1876–79.
The Grave of a Poetess
By Felicia Hemans (17931835)
I
Spring odors breathed around,
And music, in the river wave,
Passed with a lulling sound.
In the bright air glanced by,
And a glad murmur seemed to run
Through the soft azure sky.
That fringed the ruins near;
Young voices were abroad, but thou
Their sweetness couldst not hear.
Thou in whose woman’s mind
The ray that brightens earth and sea,
The light of song, was shrined.
With a dread curtain drawn
Between thee and the golden glow
Of this world’s vernal dawn.
Thou wouldst have loved so well,
To thee the sunshine round thy tomb
Was but a broken spell.
In their bright reckless play,
Might feel the flush and life of spring,—
And thou wert passed away.
O’er my vain sadness came;
The immortal spirit woke, and wrought
Within my thrilling frame.
Thou must have looked ere now,
Than all that round our pathway shed
Odors and hues below.
Yet beautiful is earth!
What seest thou, then, where no dim fear,
No haunting dream, hath birth?
Thou gavest; but where thou art
The sway is not with changeful hours,—
There love and death must part.
A voice not loud but deep!
The glorious bowers of earth among,
How often didst thou weep?
Thy tender thoughts and high?
Now peace the woman’s heart hath found,
And joy the poet’s eye.