Classic Poem

The chapelle stood & watched the way
Its cross still mouldered there
But neither priest nor penitent
Now bowed the Knee in prayer
The lamps around our Lady's shrine
Were dimmed, were quenched for aye
But still upon her brow divine
The moon-beams slumbering lay
That night Maria thought her fair
And pure & meet to be
The offerer of a fervid prayer
O! God in heaven to thee!
And for her fierce and faithless love
Maria wildly prayed
St Mary did'st thou smile above
Thine altar's solemn shade
As rose amid the eerie hush
All through thy lone chapelle
Petitions breathed in agony
For one beloved too well
Maria die before that shrine
Thy lord will love thee then
When thou art gone in bitterness
He'll wish the[e] back again!
Amid a life of woes & tears
O Brightest! cease to stay
Hark the wailing wind in the rifted arch
Says " lady pass away "
The lake the chapel looks upon
Is calm & still & deep
Maria thinks how pleasantly
She there might sink to sleep
The Chapelle & the holy cross
Gaze calmly from the brae
On another shrine & crucifix
As fair & clear as they
It chanced upon that summer night
Dark Henry home did ride
For ancient fondness fitfully
Came o'er him for his bride
Dark Henry sought his lady's bower
But his lady's bower was lone
It was mirk midnight at that shadowy hour
O! where could she be gone
Dark Henry hied to St Mary's lake
He hied to Madonna's shrine
Not a whispered word does the silence break
That reigns where those wall-flowers twine
A ripple curls on the placid mere
Though there is no wind to sigh
And a single foam-bell bubbles clear
Where the leaves of that lily lie
For Far under the fairy sea
Slumbers Maria placidly!