Classic Poem

Hence ! cruel Life! nor more persist
To warm this sad, this broken heart!
When Henry's claycold lips I kissed,
How welcome, Death! had been thy dart!

Speechless, they say, benumbed I seemed
While his last precious breath I caught;
No tears to sooth my sorrow streamed,
And agony suspended thought.

They tell me, thunders rent the air,....
That vivid lightnings flashed around;....
But I beheld no lightning's glare,
Nor heard the pealing thunder sound.

They tell me that my helpless child
I from my arms with fury tossed;....
It might be so,....for I was wild,....
The mother in the wife was lost.

They tell me, on th' unconscious corse
At length bereft of sense I fell;.....
Ah! blessed state! of balm the source!
It closed my ears to Henry's knell.

But, happy state resembling death,
Why is your balmy stupor flown?
Ah! why restore a wretch's breath?
For I can only live to moan.

E'en Reason says I justly weep,
And, ah! she says I weep in vain;
My midnight couch with tears I steep,
Then rise at morn....to weep again.

When to my heart my child I fold,
She only deepens every sigh;
I think, while I her charms behold,
How she'd have pleased her father's eye.

And while I from her lisping tongue
Soft childhood's artless accents hear,
I think, with vain remembrance wrung,
How she'd have charmed her father's ear.

I think......but O forbear, fond heart!
From vain regrets to duties turn;....
Yes,....I will act a parent's part.....
I'll tear myself from Henry's urn.

In life I still one charm can see,....
One flower adorns that dreary wild,....
That flower for care depends on me ....
O precious charge!....'Tis H ENRY'S CHILD .