English poem
The Graves Of A Household
by John C. Saul
They grew in beauty side by side, They fill’d one home with glee; Their graves are sever’d 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 in sight: Where are those dreamers now?
One ’midst the forests of the West 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 are drest Above the noble slain; He wrapt his colors round his breast On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one--o’er her the myrtle showers Its leaves, by soft winds fann’d; She faded ’midst Italian flowers; The last of that bright band.
And parted thus they rest who play’d Beneath the same green tree; Whose voices mingled as they pray’d Around one parent knee!
They that with smiles lit up the hall And cheer’d with mirth the hearth; Alas, for love! if thou wert all, And naught beyond, O Earth! --FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS.