Blackwood's Magazine/Volume 1/Issue 2/A Last Adieu

A LAST ADIEU.

Adieu, my loved parent, the trial is o'er,
The veil o'er thy couch of forgetfulness spread;
Thy kind heart shall grieve for my follies no more,
Nor the suppliant tear for thy wanderer be shed.

Long over thy head has the tempest blown fell,
But riches, unknown, were unvalued by thee;
In the wild wast thou born, in the wild didst thou dwell,
The pupil of Nature, benevolent and free;

And never, in all her uncultured domain,
Was nourished a spirit more genial and kind;
Chill poverty could not thy ardour restrain,
Nor cloud thy gay smile, or the glow of thy mind.

When winter-wreaths lay round our cottage so small,
When fancy was ardent, and feeling was strong,
O how I would long for the gloaming to fall,
To sit by thy knee and attend to thy song!

The song of the field where the warrior bled;
The garland of blossom dishonoured too soon;
The elves of the green-wood, the ghosts of the dead,
And faries that journeyed by light of the moon.

I loved thee, my parent—my highest desire
Was 'neath independence to shield thy gray head;
But fortune denied it—extinguished the fire—
And, now thou art gone, my ambition is fled.

I loved thee!—and now thou art laid in thy grave,
Thy memory I'll cherish, while memory is mine;
And the boon that my tongue aye from Heaven shall crave,
Shall be the last blessing that hung upon thine.

Though over thy ashes no tombstone is seen,
The place shall be hallowed when ages are past;
No monument tells, 'mid the wilderness green,
Where the minstreless lies of the Border the last.

But over that grave will the lover of song,
And the lover of goodness, stand silent and sigh;
And the fays of the wild will thy requiem prolong,
And shed on thy coverlet dews of the sky:

And there, from the rue and the rose's perfume,
His dew-web of dawn shall the gossamer won;
And there shall the daisy and violet bloom,
And I'll water them all with the tears of a son.

Adieu, my loved parent! the trial is past—
Again thy loved bosom my dwelling may be;
And long as the name of thy darling shall last,
All due be the song and the honour to thee! H.