DARK is the hour inscrib’d on memory’s page,
Too often drawn from sad affliction’s store;
Of future sorrows the too sure presage,
Which from my arms a much lov’d sister tore.
From full meridian day, to deepest night,
From youth and vigour, to the silent grave;
The solemn contrast pain’d my aching sight,
When ev’ry power was impotent to save.
Portentous clouds, suspended o’er that hour,
Big with impending horrors, chill’d my soul;
Stern harbingers of that allconquering power,
Whose fatal blows no kindred ties controul.
No passing time shall bid the colours fade,
Which picture to my mind that scene of woe;
Remembered virtue deepens ev’ry shade,
And memory once so lov’d becomes a foe.
Vigorous in thoughtan ever active mind,
A genius rais’d above the vulgar crowd,
Calmly sereneshe every wish resign’d,
And her full confidence in God avowed.
Retiring from the world, her worth unseen
Was valued only by th’ admiring few;
For modesty, that most effectual screen,
Round the rich gem her shelt’ring mantle threw.
Once she was mine, and resting too secure
In promis’d joys, I thought them also mine;
But who shall lasting happiness ensure
When call’d by Heav’n his treasures to resign.
‘Tis thus the worm each opening bud destroys,
And stamps uncertainty on all our joys.
(Elizabeth Bath)
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