Classic Poem

I knew a gentle maiden,
Her cheek was pale, but fair;
Her eye was blue, of the softest hue,
And a golden brown her hair.

She used to cross the meadow,
Skip nimbly o'er the stile;
Her motion light as the swallow's flight,
Like a sunbeam's play her smile.

As o'er the grassy common,
To school she blithely went,
In grace, she seemed like a fairy dreamed,
Like an angel in content.

With every Sabbath's dawning,
Up to the house of prayer
The maiden came,—for she loved the name
Of the Savior worshipped there.

She went and came so often,
That each returning morn,
My eye would stray down the winding way,
Till she had come and gone.

One day—the sun shone brightly,—
I watched, but watched in vain;
With a weary eye saw the day go by,
For she came not o'er the plain.

No more I saw her coming
With light, elastic bound;
The frost of death—it had chilled her breath,
And she slept beneath the ground.

Oh! there was bitter anguish,
And there were floods of grief;
A home made sad, that before was glad,
In that life so bright and brief.

But goodness liveth ever,
It cannot, cannot die;
When lost to earth, by a holy birth
It is born to a life on high.

And still sweet Nelly liveth
Beyond the stars of night;
Where all are fair, she is shining there,
Herself a star of light!