The months revolving now the waning year
Had decked in fleeting splendors, and the hour
Was come whose golden sands the perfect sphere
Of Violet's happiness should round, the dower
Of Youth, Hope's fragrant, many-tinted flower
Bringing to full fruition in the ray
Serene of Love. Of winds and waves the power
Had wrought, glad tidings safely to convey
To her expectant soul on this auspicious day.
Here where, upraised for her the sacred veil
That hid of life the mysteries divine,
Earth's grosser fires beside the light grew pale
That burns with lustre pure before Love's shrine,
Here where her soul the sacramental wine
Of Love made strong the bitterness to taste
Unshrinking of life's cup, her heart within
Love's magic circle sheltered, now at rest,
Waits the assurance dear that makes the Future blest.
Sweet meed of sorrows past the happiness
Time holds in trust—a mother's voice to hear
Again, again her native accents; the excess
Of her new joy into a mother's ear
To pour, her resting-place the breast sincere
That sheltered infancy;—of this delight,
Supreme and sacred, with the opening year
Her bliss that shall complete, her longing sight
The assurance dear awaits before the approaching night.
Slowly the soft Autumnal twilight falls,
Breathing a pensive charm; and never yet
Were met within those gray, time-hallowed walls
A happier group than now with Violet
The lagging moments speed; and if regret,
Of loss and absence born, on life's bright sky
A tender shadow cast, 't is but that set
Far in its depths more clearly from on high
May shine the sacred fires that light our destiny.
.mw-parser-output .wst-asterisks{display:block;margin:auto;text-align:center}******
Lo! at the open door a pallid face
Like that of one who bears ill tidings, chills
Each breast with sudden terrors that replace
The expectant joy, a nameless dread that kills,
And at its source the stream of life congeals;
And while the unshaped fear pales every cheek
That from the future all its brightness steals,
"What tidings bringest thou, Victor? Speak, oh speak!"
Violet's faltering accents thus the silence break.
With solemn tenderness her hand in his
The stranger took; and "Violet!" he cries,
"From all-wise Heaven our earthly suffering
In Heaven our truest consolation
And Heaven alone the willing sacrifice
Content accepts."—"My mother, then, is dead!"
In accents faint she said; then closed her eyes
On life's too cruel aspect, as she laid.
Like some pale, storm-crushed flower, on Julian's breast her head.
"Look up, my Violet! Belovëd, wake!
Dolores lives in Heaven!" Julian cried.
And Victor, from his eyes while lightnings break—
"Dolores lives in Heaven, whence, sanctified,
This message now she sends; and ill betide
Him who would dare oppose the last command
A mother leaves her child. Let this decide
Between us."—Ormond took with faltering hand
His letter to the Dead unopened that remained,
And one in which Dolores' hand had traced
In trembling characters her last farewell,
Tender and sad, linked with a last behest,
For Violet of love and happiness the knell—
"Thy future, dear, to one who loves thee well—
Who saved thy father's honor, I confide,
Content," she said; "so let his care dispel
Thy grief when I am gone; thy footsteps guide.
Redeem the pledge I gave; be Victor's happy bride."
"Alas, poor Violet! Our letters, then,
Outrun by Heaven's swift message, came too late!"
Ormond exclaimed; and Anna sighed again
"Alas, poor Violet!"—As when through the gate
Of dawn the chill rays that illuminate
With gray uncertain light some wintry day,
Struggle, and through the atmosphere vibrate
Feebly, the life in Violet's heart that lay
Here quivering through her frame resumed a doubtful sway.
And slowly raising the dark-fringëd lids
In brief oblivion that had veiled her brain,
Her eyes she turns around, where fate forbids
The light of joy to be relumed again,
Quenched in the darkness of a cureless pain—
A troubled glance, as when from evil dreams
The soul awakes and Reason seeks to gain
Anew her empire; while what is or seems
Joyless and cold alike the heart foreboding deems.
And as the stern and silent group she saw,
Frozen within their bosoms at its source
Grief's gentle rain, a vague and sudden awe
Mingled with her first pain, with leaden force
Her sorrow checking in its headlong course;
Then coldly calm as monumental stone,
"Why look ye thus? Than Death is aught then worse?
Yet surely this some kindly drops had drawn
From pitying eyes," she said, in hard constrainëd tone.
Then Julian—from whose brow all trace of wrath,
Swept by the mighty wave of love away,
Had passed, like footprints on the sandy path
That borders ocean, with resistless sway
When the full tide sweeps in—the blinding ray
Shut from his vision that lit up the abyss
Of yawning darkness that before him lay,
And pressing to Violet's brow his lips—"Let this
Attest a higher bond to Heaven, Love's hallowing kiss.
"And if from thence Dolores' spirit, freed
From the gross darkness of our mortal state,
Beholds us now, the doom her love decreed
Knowledge that beams celestial animate
Revokes; and if, in their serene estate
The angels weep, she weeps that men aside
Should set Truth's higher law, with obstinate
Dull vision turning from her prospects wide
And fair, their steps by false and wandering lights to guide."
"Nay," Victor, pale with ire suppressed, replied,
"This knot no shaft from Fancy's quiver drawn,
But the sharp sword of Justice shall divide."
Then, pausing, turned to Violet: "Hope has grown
Too strong within my breast to yield her throne
Passive," he said, "to Fate's first cruel shock.
Oh, at thy heart of days forever gone
Let the sad ghosts with trembling fingers knock,
Potent the sealëd fount of Memory to unlock."
Then on her soul first broke the fatal truth
That flashed, a flaming sword, before the gates
Of the lost Eden of her blighted youth;
And as one shipwrecked, while hope animates
Shrinks from his fate, but calmly death awaits
When from his grasp the waves have swept away
His frail support, so, in the ice-bound straits.
Now, of Despair, bereft of her last stay,
To their wild waves she yields her heart a passive prey.
And pale and calm, like some fair, fragile flower
Touched by the first rude frost, she gently said,
"Alas! by her who brings for her chief dower
Remorse and cureless grief, is ill repaid
A husband's love. Oh, seek not to invade,
Victor, the sanctuary of my woe;
Within that sacred, joy-dispelling shade
Let the dark waters of my being flow,
Untroubled their brief course by Passion's mocking glow.
"And thou, Belovëd, grieve not that so soon
The cherished flower that bloomed upon thy breast
Has withered, ere the splendors of life's noon
Could light, or evening gild its placid rest.
Our Father, knowing all, knows what is best,
And loving, wounds us not with needless pain.
Yet, oh, to enter on that solemn quest
Alone, without thy strong clasp to sustain—
Fain would my shrinking soul refuse this cup to drain."
"Oh yield not, Violet, to grief's dark spell
Thy spirit," Ormond cried, "the passive thrall;
Nor bid to hope and happiness farewell
That thou thus early sharest a natural
And common sorrow. Time, that covers all
Unsightly ruins that his hand has made
With budding leaves and blossoms, shall recall
Hope's vital sap thy being to pervade,
And Joy's bright sun dispel of this dark cloud the shade."
"And, oh, the affection here that would replace
Hers that in Heaven shall watch o'er thee still,"
Said Anna, folding her in fond embrace,
"Reject not. With a child's dear cares, oh, fill
Our childless days till, this dark cloud of ill
Dispersed, life's sun shine forth serene and bright.
Child of our love! our Violet! distil
Thy sweets and shed around thy heaven-caught light
In our life's garden still, source of our best delight."
"Enough," said Victor; "it were idle now,
While Grief's dark shade on spirit and on mind
Lies cold, a claim the heart would disallow
To press. Let Nature, ever wise and kind,
The icy fetters Violet's soul that bind
Loosen with gentle hand, and time restore
All things with power benignant their defined
And just proportions; then let Reason soar
Untrammelled to Truth's cloudless heights. I ask no more."
******
And thus the fabric Youth and Love had raised,
A fair Aladdin's palace, from whose bright
And countless windows joy's clear beams had blazed,
Silent and swift had vanished in the night.
And when the cheerful morning's rosy light
Dispelled the shadows over earth that lay,
The spot where late that Palace of Delight
Had stood, the brightness of her kindling ray
Disclosed, a scene of desolation, bare and gray.
Not with the seeming death that winter brings
To Nature's gay activity and bloom—
The kindly sleep whence life awakening springs
To fairer colors and more sweet perfume.
Beyond the gloomy portals of the tomb
The blighted flower of love may blossom now
Alone. Its sacred radiance shall illume
The garland crowning an immortal brow,
But mortal springs no more with charms divine endow.
And as a child, whose eager mind essays
The task too hard for his weak powers in vain,
At last shuts up the book, and, tired, lays
Aside the problem that perplexed his brain,
So Violet, weary, sought not to sustain
The unequal struggle, but at once aside
With life's dark problem cast life's joy and pain,
In the still darkness of the grave to hide
The ruins of the Dream love's light had glorified.
Gently her gentle spirit sank to rest;
No vain complaints or unavailing tears
Disturbed the hours that Youth would fain contest
With Death; and if at times some natural fears
Oppressed her soul, for all the golden years
Unlived, some fond regrets, these shadows soon,
Touched by the glory from celestial spheres
That lit the darkness of the dread Unknown,
Vanished like morning mists before the radiant noon.
One cloud alone hung ever, dark and chill,
Above the horizon of Earth's faidng sky;
A cloud that there should rest immutable,
Till form her mortal sight it passed for aye,
Lost in the darkness of Eternity,
Or by its awful splendors swift dispelled,—
The shadow of the silent agony
That preyed on Julian's soul and thence compelled
To one dull sense of pain each fibre being held.
From all the natural joys of youth withdrawn,
As thus he saw her slowly, day by day,
Fade like a star in some sad wintry dawn,
Within his breast the feebly flickering ray
Of Hope's pale torch went out; in dread array
Before his soul stern images of gloom
Arose—that form companion of the clay
Where Grace and Beauty dwelt in breathing bloom;
In all its horrors clothed the dark and silent tomb.
Wildly he prayed to heaven some aid to lend,
Some saving help in this his bitter need;
Alas! the high designs of Heaven bend
Not to our low estate; and once decreed,
Our fates to their appointed end proceed.
The vision of our dull mortality
Is all too narrow the wide plans to read
That guide our being; in blind agony
The bruised heart can but shrink from pain with helpless cry.
******
The shadows closing round the cheerless day
Were deepening now, and whirling on the blast,
The last dead leaves, torn from the boughs away,
Were borne, the spectres of a vanished Past.
The sky with gathering darkness overcast
Hung over Nature's lifeless form, a pall;
And sad as wailings of lost souls outcast
From Heaven for aye, the winds released from thrall
Swept through the solemn pines, her dirge funereal.
How changed the scene! How changed, alas! her heart,
As Violet took of life her last farewell
Each wildwood sound that once had formed a part
Of Nature's joyous paean, to the knell
Turned of dead hopes, and broke the magic spell
That erst the grassy hillside, daisy-grown,
Had changed to enchanted meads of asphodel.
Blighted by frosts no sun-ray could dispel,
The brief, bright summer of her love was done,
Ere yet the fleeting bloom that saw its birth was gone.
"Come near, Belovëd; let us one again
Together watch the sun sink to his rest;
But not, alas! in promise bright, as when
Earth smiled upon us in gay beauty drest,"
She softly said, as faintly from the west
Through gathering shadows broke a pallid gleam
And lit her couch. "When the sun's rays invest
Nature in day's returning light, his beam
Shall waken thee alone from our enchanted Dream.
"Take in thy dear hand mine, that I may feel
The strong support of love in this last hour;
So gently o'er my mortal sense shall steal,
Robbed of its bitterness, the conquering power
Of death; as to some fragile tropic flower
Decay comes softly, under tropic skies
That smile on it. My spirit shall not cower,
Thus while I gaze in thy belovëd eyes,
But to the Throne of Love, made strong by love, shall rise."
O, bitter anguish! helpless thus to see,
Silent and pitiless, the hand of Fate
Place on that form its seal that blindly we
Have held to Love's dear service dedicate;
To hear that voice for the last time vibrate
Without whose tones were discord heavenly choirs;
The last responsive glance of eyes to wait
That lit our world with joy-enkindling fires;
To see, and stretch no hand, while our life's life expires.
"Dost thou remember that enchanted eve
When first we met, Belovēd; when, our hands
Uniting, Ormond bade thee to receive
To thy regard a child of sunnier lands,
Born by the wind of Fate to northern strands,
And from rude airs to shield her for his sake?
Alas! the flower that from its native sands
Transplanted, sudden tempests overtake,
Uprooted, no warm sun to life can reawake.
“And yet—though cold annihilation claim
This fragile vesture of mortality,
It cannot quench the pure, celestial flame
That lights the shadows of eternity.
Yes! that within me which can never die
I feel; and deep enshrinēd in my soul
Our love, earth's fairest gift, I bear on high;
Could I more richly freighted reach life’s goal,
Though still some few brief years of earth should o'er me roll?
“And thou, dear friend, those few brief years shalt pass
Not all unhappy, though thy Violet
Speak to thy heart but through the tangled grass
Above her grave with dews of heaven wet;
For in thy soul shall live, an amulet
To keep it strong, the memory of our love;
Until to hope transformed, in heaven set,
A star serene, it draw thy gaze above,
And thy upsoaring soul her destiny approve.
"Yes, soaring up from Grief's consuming fire,
True to herself thy soul shall plume her wings,
And to the clear, untroubled heights aspire
Where living water flow from deathless springs.
And oh! when Heaven wide her portal flings
To greet thee, victor in the appointed strife,
How poor shall seem unwilling offerings,
Laid on the altar of Eternal Life,
Of Earth's frail flowers fed by sunshine pale and brief.
"Now closer round me draws the gathering gloom;
Farewell, O Earth! where still the dearest part
I leave of my divided life. Illume,
O Sun Serene! the dark waves that dispart
Our being, with thy beams, that my faint heart,
Touched by their glory, on her homeward way
Courageous may set out. Behold! athwart
The darkness breaks the first resplendent ray
Of light celestial, herald of Eternal Day!"
And thus her spirit passed from earth's cold sphere,
Of too ethereal mould to linger long,
Chilled by the mists of our bleak atmosphere,
The strife and sorrows of our world among.
Like the last strains of some sweet, pensive song
It passed away and in the hearts where fell
Its dying sweetness, Memory shall prolong,
Until celestial harmonies dispel
All sadness, the sad echoes of her last farewell.