  Oh! give me a grave in a lone, gloomy dell, By the side of a deep, swift creek, Where the ripples run like a tinkling bell, Through the grassy nooks, where love so well The minnows to play hide and seek! Where in summer the thick twining foliage weaves A green, arching roof upon high, And the rain-drops fall from the dripping eaves, Like tears of grief from the weeping leaves On the face upturned to the sky! Where the silence frightens the birds away, And all is still, dreary and weird, Except, perchance at the close of day, The bittern’s boom or the crane’s hoarse bray, Floating over the swamp, is heard. Where the dusky wolf and the antlered deer Ever shun the dark, haunted ground; Where the crouching panther ventures near, His tawny coat all bristling with fear, At the sight of the low, red mound. Where at twilight gray, the lone whippoorwill May perch on the stake at my head, And with its unearthly, tremulous trill The dreary gloom of the whole place fill With a requiem over the dead. Where the greater the ruin in earth’s damp mold, The greater the contrast will prove, When the weary wings of my spirit I fold, In heaven, and swell with a bright harp of gold, The grand pealing anthem of love. February 9th, 1867 |
|
