Portage sentinel. [volume] (Ravenna, Ohio) 1845-1854, 1847-03-24
From the Knickerbocker.
THE LONE WIDOW. "A Lament.

She was q lone widow. What words
more expressive of utter desolation than
these? What more adapted to elicit the
sympathy of cold, heartless Implying
world? The oak tree may spare the ivy,
and the elm the vine, yet is not their
strength diminished, though they have lost
the ductile foliage, and the rich and purple
grape. But you may not reverse the case,
or the fragile plants are shorn OF their
comeliness; they languish, they droop, they
are trodden on the cold earth.
She was lone widow. Her staff, her
support, on whom she had leaned so long
and so constantly, in storm and in sunshine,
was taken away, and she was left to battle
with the worlds sorrows, and deceits, and
vanties-alone! Her 'gude man. was
her elder, by score of summers. He was
not made of iron, though some folks might
have thought it. He had his own troubles,
and he sank beneath them at good old
age. 1t was a sad scene presented at his
death:bed. Not child looked on to wit
ness his last moments, or to receive the
last blessing of a parent. But she alone,
the wife Of his bosom, hung over his pillow,
convulsed and sobbing. He grasped her
hand-he raised his eyes imploringly-his
lips moved-they uttered few words al
most inarticulate-and they were burden
, ed with request-that she should never be
married to another. He essayed yet again
to speak. TO her he gave all his worldly
= goods, and they were many; to her his pos
sessions, without division or reserve; and
a the condition was, that she should never b.
, married to another. !. a.'.
, She consented with hesitancy occasion
/. ed only by choking sobs For the las
1 time he looked up inquiringly, and he ask
). ed,"Never?" And she answered, "NEvER!'
II So she closed her good mans eyes in peace
4 And she arrayed herself in the deepes
I mourning, followed him decently to tn
O grave, and having watered it with floo
"a of the bitterest tears, returned to her desc
late housc-A LONE WIDOW!
- 1t was winter time; but no more cold
- "a the earthly clod, than the heart berett {
N its beloved. She remembered often the wore
% which her good man had spoken, and OF
10 o she thought it was a crying sin, that wiz
ows should be prevailed on to depart fro
!. - widowhood, forgetting who lies cold in II
= sepulchre, and to whom they had pledge
q their early love; that they should excnan&
a their weeds for the gorgeous colors an
X. butterfly robes of vanity, and go for
brides-yet not brides-a spectacle to tt
,c. world. 1t was unseemly, it was immodes
ar But she would never, never lay aside HI
ed robes Of mourning; she would go dow
n weeping to the grave--A LONE WIDOW
,le Her neighbors felt for her forlorn estat
be They came to console her. and to ming
If their tears with hers. Their efforts we
,ce we'll meant, but unavailing. They COZ
of not stay the torrent of her grief They 50
IL. that time would do wonders,' so they let
f.. have full sway. But they spoke OF all t
NO good deeds of her good man. pleaslr
,le yet melancholy "reminiscences! She loV
an 10 allude to the words which he spake, q
The to all the dear works fhis hands. Ihe
md he first courted her, beneath the shade
ca. the old elm-tree; there they first walked
ick the sweet seasons of youth; there he u
ire to sit when he played on the viol! I
the how sweet were the tunes which ne Pla.
we'd on the viol! But he was gone, the bos'
] men, and she, she was-A LONE swlDt