Classic Poem

Nestling by Potomac river,
Slumb'rous Alexandria sees,
Where the waters flash and quiver,
Ruffled by the Southern breeze,
Vessels sailing on forever,
Freighted full from golden leas.

On the hill a spire is keeping
Watch above the sluggish mart.
Round about the dead are sleeping
Till the day when all shall start.
Past the bitter, bitter weeping;
Past the anguish of the heart.

Every mound some message beareth,
Chiselled deep in snowy stone,
Telling how the loved one shareth
Bliss that never here was known.
But an ancient tablet weareth
This: " A Stranger's Grave " alone.

And beneath, so says tradition,
Lies a lady nobly bred.
Lured by love's entrancing vision,
From her English home she fled.
Years passed by on wings elysian.
Here she found her lowly bed.

But the loving sunlight presses
Warmly on her robe of sod;
And the gentle shade caresses
As the branches sway and nod;
And the zephyr softly blesses,
Like a soul at peace with God.

There a weary wanderer tarried,
Journeying to lands afar.
Sore the weight his bosom carried,
Mourning many a vanished star!
But to yonder grave were married
Hopes that life could never mar.

Visions of his early folly
Trooped across his dreaming brain, —
Yule-time merriment and holly;
Courtly dance and blithesome strain;
Love's delight and melancholy, —
Things he ne'er might know again.

Then a face serene and saintly,
Idol of his youthful days,
Holy white and smiling faintly,
Dawned upon his inward gaze:
And the tablet, carven quaintly,
Vanished in a golden haze.

Once again his suit he urges;
Once again consent she yields.
Pass they ocean's solemn surges,
Crowded cities, silent fields.
Then the wealth of bliss that merges
Lives and souls like herald shields.

Once again he saw her fading,
Slowly fading, day by day:
Sorrowful, without upbraiding,
For the loved one gone astray.
Angels seemed her footsteps aiding.
Smiling, thus she passed away.

With a sigh the spell was broken.
Forms and voices none were there.
At his feet the solemn token;
All around the sunny glare.
Yet a name no lip had spoken
Seemed to linger on the air.