Isabel.
Soft waves of warm brown hair,1
With gold lights shining through,2
Shading a face as sweetly fair3
As ever fancy framed in air,4
As ever painter drew.5
Sweet spirit, frank and true,6
With love, with kindness rife ;7
What tender heart but to thee drew !8
What kindly eye but in thee knew9
The sunshine of our life !10
Sweet Spring, bright Summer past,11
And Autumn come again ;12
The west wind’s spoils are falling fast,13
What is our change brought with that blast ?14
Why fall our tears like rain ?15
Only a new-turned heap,16
One little grave, new made :17
Bare is the earth o’er which we weep ;18
Never a flower to pluck and keep,19
Never a grassy blade.20
Silence, where late was mirth ;21
One mother’s heart half-riven ;22
One vacant seat beside a hearth ;23
One loving spirit less on earth ;24
One angel more in heaven !25