LESSON 30 THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD

THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD

FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS (1793-1835): English poetess; authoress of many charming lyrics and ballads.

THEY grew in beauty, side by side,

They filled one home with glee;—

Their graves are severed, 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 [1] in sight—

Where are those dreamers now?

One, ’midst the forests of the West [2] ,

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 loved of all, yet none

O’er his low bed may weep.

One sleeps where southern vines [3] are drest

Above the Noble slain;

He wrapped his colours round his breast

On a blood-red field of Spain.

And one—o’er her the myrtle [4] showers

Its leaves, by soft winds fanned;

She faded ‘midst Italian flowers—

The last of that bright band.

And parted thus they rest, who played

Beneath the same green tree;

Whose voices mingled as they prayed

Around one parent knee;

They that with smiles lit up the hall,

And cheered with song the hearth—

Alas for love, if thou weft all,

And naught beyond, O Earth!

—MRS . HEMANS

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[1] folded flower: The sleeping child compared to a flower which closes at eventide.

[2] the West: Refers to America.

[3] southern vines: Vineyards of Spain.

[4] myrtle: A beautiful evergreen shrub that grows in the South of Europe.