FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  
imly on his view, As a dull picture of a spot we knew, Where we but cold and lifeless forms can trace. But no bold truth, nor one familiar face. V. Night sat upon the graves, like gloom to gloom, As silent treading o'er each lowly tomb, Thoughtful and sad, he lonely strove to trace, Amidst the graves, his father's resting-place. And well the spot he knew; yea, it alone Was all now left that he might call his own Of all that was his kindred's; and although He looked for no proud monument to show The tomb he sought, yet mem'ry marked the spot Where slept his ancestors; and had it not, He deemed--he felt--that if his feet but trode Upon his parents' dust, the voice of God, As it of old flashed through a prophet's breast, Would in his bosom whisper, "Here they rest!" 'Twas an Enthusiast's thought;--but, oh! to tread, With darkness round us, 'midst the voiceless dead, With not an eye but Heaven's upon our face-- At such a moment, and in such a place, Seeking the dead we love--who would not feel. Yea, and believe as he did then, and kneel On friend or father's grave, and kiss the sod As in the presence of our father's God! VI. He reached the spot; he startled--trembled--wept; And through his bosom wildest feelings swept. He sought a nameless grave, but o'er the place Where slept the generations of his race, A marble pillar rose. "Oh Heaven!" he cried, "Has avaricious Ruin's hand denied The parents of my heart a grave with those Of their own kindred?--have their ruthless foes Grasped this last, sacred spot we called our own? If but a weed upon that grave had grown, I would have honoured it!--have called it brother! Even for my father's sake, and thine, my mother! But that cold marble freezes up my heart, And seems to tell me that I have no part With its proud dead; while through the veil of night The name it bears yet mocks my anxious sight." Thus cried he bitterly; then, trembling, placed His finger on the marble, while he traced Its letters one by one, and o'er and o'er;-- Grew blind with eagerness, and shook the more, As with each touch, the feeling o'er him came-- The unseen letters formed his father's name! VII. While thus, with beating heart, pursuing still His anxious task, slow o'er a neighbouring hill The broad moon rose, by not a cloud concealed, Lit up the valley, and the tomb revealed!-- His parents' tomb!--and now, with wild surprise, He saw the column burst upon his eyes-- Fa
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40  
41   42   43   44   45   46   47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

father

 
marble
 

parents

 
letters
 

anxious

 

sought

 

called

 

kindred

 

Heaven

 

graves


surprise

 

column

 
honoured
 

brother

 

mother

 

freezes

 
valley
 

sacred

 
revealed
 

Grasped


denied
 

avaricious

 

pillar

 

picture

 

ruthless

 

eagerness

 

feeling

 

unseen

 

formed

 

pursuing


beating

 

neighbouring

 

traced

 
concealed
 
finger
 

trembling

 

bitterly

 
marked
 

ancestors

 

deemed


looked

 

monument

 

flashed

 

prophet

 

breast

 
lonely
 

strove

 
Amidst
 

treading

 

Thoughtful