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DO I weep because she is dead?
Ah no, it is very calm in the grave,
And she needed calm, for storms were wild
And my darling was never very brave:
Now she smiles in sleep like a little child
Dreaming at night in its happy bed:
Why should I weep for her dead?
She was very young and bright,
But she could not laugh her sorrows away
As I, who am stronger and harder, could do,
Though the brown of my locks grew dimmed with grey:
But she, her heart was too simple and true
To jest with grief, and her cheek grew white -
It was once so fair and bright.
Perhaps it was all for the best
For both, though it leaves me so very lone,
I could hardly have borne so much distress,
If it had not been all and only my own.
Ah well! her smile was a thing to bless
My sharpest pain, but nought pains her rest,
So I think it is all for the best.
For I think I must have gone mad
Had I seen her grow worn and early old
With the care and the burden of toilsome days.
To see her pallid with hunger and cold
And pained by want in a thousand ways,
To see her sweet face grow rigid and sad,
Surely I must have gone mad!
But she would have borne it all
And still have smiled, but she could not bear
All the shame and the loathing that others draw
On our name, and our burden of lonely care -
For we had not many friends that were true,
So had small love-comfortings in our fall,
And she could not bear it at all.
She did not often weep
But grew more silent and still every day,
And seldom moved, but sat white and sad;
So when I saw she must pass away
I had almost the courage to be glad -
Ah well! my darling has happy sleep,
And so I do not weep.
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A Woman Sold
Bartimaeus
Judas
Pilate
The Walk To Emmaus
A Bride
A March Night
A Messenger
A Mother's Cry
A Wedding
Afterwards
Dead Amy
Deserted
Dreaming
Glad Waves
Going
How The Brook Sings
If
In The Storm
In The Sunshine
Looking Downstairs
Mary Lost
Never Again
Night Whispers
On The Lake
On The Shore
Our Lily
Passing Away
Perjured
Safe
Shadow
Sunlight
The Blush Rose
The Gift
The Heiress' Wooer
The Hidden Wound
The Lake
The Land Of Happy Dreams
The Old Year Out
The Red Star On The Hill
The River
The Setting Star
The Shadow Of A Cloud
To And Fro
To One Of Many
Too faithful
Two Maidens |
