When fair Louise, half child, half woman, died Like some frail blossom crushed by wind and rain, Her bier was followed by no mourning train. One priest alone accompanied, who sighed Brief prayers, to which in accents soft and low, A boy-attendant answered, full of woe. Louise was poor: in death, our common lot, The rich have honours which the poor have not. A simple cross of wood, a faded pall, These were her funeral honours, this was all; And when the sexton from the cottage room Conveyed her light young body to the tomb, A bell tolled faintly, as if loath to say So sweet a maiden had been called away. 'Twas thus she died—and thus, by hill and dale, 'Mid broom whose fragrance floated on the gale, And past green cornfields, at the dawn of day, The scant procession humbly took its way. April had lately burst upon the earth In all the glory that attends her birth, And tenderly upon the passing bier She snowed her blossoms and she dropped her tear. Flowers, pink and white, arrayed the hawthorn now, While starry buds were trembling on each bough, Sweet scents and harmonies the air caressed And every bird was warbling in its nest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BY THE ALMA RIVER by DINAH MARIA MULOCK CRAIK IN MEMORIAM A.H.H.: EPILOGUE by ALFRED TENNYSON THE DEATH OF SCHILLER by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT SONNET: 186 by LUIS DE CAMOENS FIRST SONGS: 7 by HILDA CONKLING EUROPA by WILLIAM JOHNSON CORY |