Page:Poems Eaton.djvu/48

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34
The Dying Wife.
THE DYING WIFE.
I FEEL thy tears upon my brow,
I hear thy quivering deep-drawn sigh,
And though the death-damp chills me now,
And dark mists hover o'er my eye,
I love thee as in bye past years
We've loved, returning each caress,
And smiling on our children dear,
So soon to be left motherless.

I've loved thee, dearest, with a love
So free from taint of sinful earth.
That to be felt in courts above
'Twill need no change of heavenly birth;
And now, although my weary heart
Would seek its rest, I fain would bless
Thy fond affection, ere I part
From thee and them—the motherless.

Kind hast thou ever been to me,
Fulfilling with a watchful care,
The vow which Heaven required of thee,
When we united bowed in prayer—
The vow to love "till death shall part,"
Thou didst perform, and I was blest—
Now new duties claim thy heart,
To watch and guard the motherless.