OH Death! insatiate archer! why on me
Pour forth thy vengeance with a shaft so keen?
Why was no other victim mark’d by thee,
To be conducted to the world unseen?
Or didst thou think my Harriet’s growing worth
Was too angelic for this faulty earth?
Oh Death! if such was thy benign design,
Then will I try to bear this load of mine!
Yet how with fortitude can I sustain
The keenest anguish–most afflictive pain!
How shall I now drag on the load of life,
When ev’ry joy, and ev’ry bliss is fled!
When she who prov’d a sister, friend, and wife ,
Alas! lies number’d with the silent dead;
For ev’ry tie relationship e’er gave,
Seems to me, buried in my Harriet’s grave:
‘Twas in her sweet society I found
Each kindred left upon my native ground!
Oh! could I check those inward pangs which rise,
And rob my mind of comfort and of rest!
Let those condemn my unavailing sighs
Who ne’er like me –have been supremely bless’d!
Yet let me not presumptuously repine;
My Harriet was but lent by pow’r Divine ;
The great Jehovah only gave her birth,
To prove that virtue still exists on earth;
On me–vain man, bestow’d the heav’nly prize,
Ere he recall’d her to her native skies!
A few short years alone can intervene,
Ere Death shall point his ebon’d dart at me;
Nay, months –may haply not by me be seen,
Dear Harriet, ere my spirit flies to thee!
Then shalt thou greet me on thy native shore;
Then ev’ry pang, and ev’ry care be o’er;
Extatic bliss–and joy supreme shall prove,
The bright reward of genuine wedded love;
Then hallelujah’s we’ll together sing,
To our beneficent eternal king!
Yet whilst my soul’s envelop’d round with clay,
May I each duty, and each tie fulfil;
Affection’s dictates rigidly obey,
And whilst I mourn, bow to my Maker’s will!
My little Harriet now has double claim
Upon her father’s tenderness and name!
Dear helpless innocent–thy growing years
Will oft be nurtur’d with thy sire’s sad tears;
And when thy lisping accents can proclaim
The mournful sound of thy lov’d mother’s name,
Then, lovely innocent, I’ll hourly try
To make thee worthy of yon azure sky!
(Mary Hopkins Pilkington)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Life Poems, World Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Friendship Poems, Name Poems, Kings & Queens Poems, Pain Poems, Happiness PoemsBased on Keywords: rigidly, nurtur, afflictive, presumptuously