Poems (Welby)/The First Death of the Household

by Amelia Welby

THE FIRST DEATH OF THE HOUSEHOLD.

O! many a mournful year hath flown
 Since first amid our family-band
Death came and stole our loveliest one,
 And bore her to the spirit-land;
Yet shrined with many a sweet sad thought,
 That loved one's memory lingers still,
For O! she left a void, that nought
 But mournful thoughts could fill.

Years have passed by, I said, and yet
 It only seems the other day,
Since round her dying bed we met
 With breaking hearts to weep and pray.
Her gentle soul we strove to think
 Would linger yet 'mid earthly flowers,
Even when 't was trembling on the brink
 Of lovelier worlds than ours.

Yes! there e'en when all hope had flown,
 We wept away each lingering hour,
Until the shades of death came down
 And closed at last the shutting flower;
And yet it seemed like sin to grieve
 For one so patient and resigned;
For, if she mourned, 't was but to leave
 Such breaking hearts behind.

She died—yet death could scarcely chill
 Her smiling beauties, though she lay
With cold extended limbs, for still
 Her face looked fairer than the day.
Those eyes, once eloquent with bliss,
 Were closed as soft as shutting flowers.
O! few could bear a sight like this,
 Yet such a sight was ours.

How slowly wore that long, long day!
 Like spirits in some haunted place
We 'd sit and sigh, then steal away
 To look once more on that pale face;
We could not think her soul had past
 The awful bounds of mortal strife,
That the warm heart was cold at last,
 That loved us more than life.

And when the funeral rite was said,
 They bore her from our happy home,
And left her with the silent dead,
 A pale-faced tenant of the tomb,
They reared no marble 'mid the flowers
 Above her grave to mark the spot,
Yet many a heart as fond as ours
 Still holds her unforgot.

Months passed, yet still our sorrow gushed,
 The free glad laugh no more was heard,
And many a little voice was hushed,
 That used to warble like a bird.
And though at times we strove to smile
 Serenely for each other's sake,
We wept in secret all the while
 As if our hearts would break.

Yet why should death be linked with fear?
 A single breath, a low-drawn sigh,
Can break the ties, that bind us here,
 And waft the spirit to the sky.
Such was her end, a calm release,
 No clingings to this mortal clod;
She closed her eyes, and stood in peace
 Before a smiling God.