Classic Poem

'Twas one fair evening, when the closing day
Shines lustrous in Apollos' parting beam;
Who as he sinks within his azure palace
And draws the splendid curtains ruby red,
Of his sublime pavillion; casts a glance
O'er this round g[l]obe terest[r]ial, then bids
A bright farewell, and drops the veil which hides
His glories in its cloud like crimson folds.
'Twas in that hour I entered the high gates
Of consecrated ground; there stood a Church,
Whose grey and ruined form seemed to have felt
The storms and blasts of centuries; It was
Enrobed with ivy and its pillared portals
All wreathed with green young tendrils, seemed in their
Massive grandeur, t'have been formed in ages
When the British chivalry rode forth with might
To meet the Saracen: And free the land;
The sacred land of Palestine, from their
Unhallowed presence. Through the dark yew trees
Gloomy cypresses and high black firs;
Which grew around a soft & faint light stole
Investing with a holy solemness,
The ancient building and illumining,
The tombs and grave-mounds, where the still dead slept.
Among those monuments there stood a figure
Clothed in deep mourning from whose dark eye beamed
The sad and wild light of insanity
And as she stood she poured a thrilling strain
Which echoed mid the churchyard from whose walls
A soft response came forth as thus she sang

I know my sister thou art gone
For the mild peaceful light;
Which ever in they fair eye shone
Has vanished from my sight.
And when black midnight cast her pall
O'er the reposing earth,
I heard a faint voice on thee call
And bid thy soul come forth.
I saw thee in a glazed shroud
Within the chamber lie;
And when with greif my heart was bowed
A whisper from on high;
Has told me that thou dwell'st among
Bright bands of Seraphim
Who with a sweet eternal song
The triune Godhead hymn.
One night when silence reigned around
I heard sweet music rise
Whose harplike & harmonious sound
Came from the star-hung skies
And when had dyed each soft sweet tone
Thy spirit passed away
And left me a sad mourner here
On this dark earth to stay.

Then ceased the requiem and the figure moved
With slow and noiseless step from the dark grave
Amid grey mantled twilights deep'ning gloom
Now hov'ring over all the silent earth.