FLOWER, RAINBOW, BIRD, AND STAR. 55 So, like that lovely flower, And like that rainbow's light, And like the bird of the summer bower, And the glittering star of night, Hath thy loved one, in life's pure spring, Been borne away on an angel's wing, CASA WAPPY.* AND hast thou sought thy heavenly home, The realms where sorrow dare not come, 1 Pure at thy death as at thy birth, Thy spirit caught no taint from earth; Even by its bliss we mete our death, Despair was in our last farewell, Tears of our anguish may not tell When thou didst die * Casa Wappy was the self-conferred pet name of an infant son of the poet, snatched away after a very brief illness. Words may not paint our grief for thee, Sighs are but bubbles on the sea Of our unfathomed agony, Casa Wappy! Thou wert a vision of delight To bless us given ; Beauty embodied to our sight, So dear to us thou wert, thou art Casa Wappy! Thy bright, brief day knew no decline, 'T was cloudless joy; Sunrise and night alone were thine, This morn beheld thee blithe and gay, And e'er a third shone, clay was clay, Casa Wappy! Gem of our hearth, our household pride, Earth's undefiled, Could love have saved, thou hadst not died, Our dear, sweet child! Humbly we bow to fate's decree; Yet had we hoped that time should see Do what I may, go where I will, There dost thou glide before me still, — I feel thy breath upon my cheek, Casa Wappy! Methinks thou smil'st before me now, The hair thrown back from thy full brow I see thine eyes' deep violet light, The nursery shows thy pictured wall, Thy bat, thy bow, Thy cloak and bonnet, club and ball; A corner holds thine empty chair, Casa Wappy! Even to the last, thy every word - Was sweet as sweetest song of bird In outward beauty undecayed, Death o'er thy spirit cast no shade,, And like the rainbow thou didst fade, Casa Wappy! |