A PHILOSOPHIC maid, with tranquil mind,
Life’s gayer scenes and youth’s fond hopes resign’d,
Left Piercefield’s lov’d retreats, from childhood dear,
And came to dwell a willing recluse here,
Yet here could science boast its power to charm,
And here could nature’s wildest features warm
Her ardent mind, and fancy’s vivid ray,
With brighter lustre, gild the summer’s day;
And here benevolence could still pursue
Its fav’rite task, to give to want its due,
The drooping sons of poverty to cheer,
And wipe from sorrow’s eye the starting tear.
This task was hers-and all the friendless round,
In her a friend and benefactress found.
Alas! could neither worth nor talents save
Their lov’d possessor from an early grave?
Form’d the most polish’d circles to adorn,
Yet forc’d to quit them in life’s early morn,
Ah! where is now affection’s ardent glow,
The sympathetic breast which felt for woe,
The generous heart and the exalted mind,
The fire of genius and the taste refin’d?-
Where now that active animating flame,
Which gave its vigour to the mortal frame,
Which bade expression in each feature speak,
Glanc’d in the eye, and mantled on the cheek?
Where now each virtue, every noble guest,
That once were inmates of her gentle breast?
Can death’s cold hand-whose icy touch congeals
Life’s crimson tide, and all its flood-gates seals,
Which clouds the lustre of the brightest eye,
And from the cheek bids beauty’s roses fly-
Can it extinguish each celestial ray,
Each heav’n-born beam that gives the mental day,
And quench in shades of everlasting night,
Reflection, thought, and reason’s sacred light?
No: these, the tyrant’s power can ne’er destroy;
A deathless heir of everlasting joy,
Within a fragile tenement enshrin’d,
A living spirit, dwells th’ immortal mind!
That spark which animates the breathing clay,
Shall suffer no extinction or decay,
But change its dwelling for a nobler home,
Where sickness and disease can never come.
Those powers, those virtues, which exerted here,
The memory of departed friends endear;
These shall survive the latest wrecks of time,
And gain new lustre in a happier clime.
(Isabella Lickbarrow)
More Poetry from Isabella Lickbarrow:
Isabella Lickbarrow Poems based on Topics: Mind, Friendship, Joy & Excitement, Life, Light, Night, Death & Dying, Charm, Summer, Power, Thought & Thinking- The Pictures Of Memory (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
- The Vision. Canto First. (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
- The Vision. Canto Third. (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
- A Fragment On Solitude (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
- Lady Hamilton (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
- Written Early in Spring (Isabella Lickbarrow Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: Life Poems, Night Poems, Light Poems, Mind Poems, Time Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Friendship Poems, Fire Poems, Thought & Thinking PoemsBased on Keywords: congeals, exerted, n-born, enshrin, animating, glanc, flood-gates, benefactress, hers-and