OH! lightly, lightly tread! A holy thing is sleep, On the worn spirit shed, And eyes that wake to weep. A holy thing from Heaven, A gracious dewy cloud, A covering mantle given The weary to enshroud. Oh! lightly, lightly tread! Revere the pale still brow, The meekly-drooping head, The long hair's willowy flow. Ye know not what ye do, That call the slumberer back, From the world unseen by you Unto life's dim faded track. Her soul is far away, In her childhood's land, perchance, Where her young sisters play, Where shines her mother's glance. Some old sweet native sound Her spirit haply weaves; A harmony profound Of woods with all their leaves; A murmur of the sea, A laughing tone of streams. -- Long may her sojourn be In the music-land of dreams! Each voice of love is there, Each gleam of beauty fled, Each lost one still more fair -- Oh! lightly, lightly tread! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ALBERT SIDNEY JOHNSTON [APRIL 6, 1862] by KATE BROWNLEE SHERWOOD TO BARON DE STONNE WITH AIKIN'S ESSAYS ON SONG-WRITING by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE HAPPY DAYS WHEN I WER YOUNG by WILLIAM BARNES CHRISTMAS AFTER WAR by KATHARINE LEE BATES THE NEW MOON by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN ON THE DEATH OF MR. GARRICK by JANE BOWDLER EPISTLE FROM ONE ABSENT EDITOR TO ANOTHER by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |