1.
‛ I thought but on the bridal song—1
Not on thy death-dirge sad and long—2
I thought but on thy bridal sheet—3
Not o’er thy shroud to wail and weep—4
Thy cottage on the streamlet’s bank5
Is now the cold grave deep and dank ;6
And thy poor maiden comes to moan,7
And sob o’er thy sepulchre stone.8
2.
‛ The warmest heart—the brightest eye9
Is earliest doomed to love and die,10
The sweetest, gentlest, and the best,11
Seek earliest out the land of rest.12
The noblest mind, the bravest spirit,13
Is briefly doomed earth to inherit—14
This world holds nought that’s worth the
trust15
trust15
Of woman’s love, since thou wert dust.16
3.
‛ Thou comest with the coming light—17
Thou goest not with the darksome night—18
True as the leaf is to the tree19
And the lily bloom to Blackwood-lea,20
True as our shadows were to the stream,21
As we courting sat in the sweet moonbeam ;22
So is thy form to me, and never23
Shall life or death us sunder and sever.’24