Lynchburg Virginian. [volume] (Lynchburg [Va.]) 1829-185?, 1851-07-31
POETRY.
The Lady's Dream

nc LlOy DEcAh4s
The Lady lay in her bed.
Her couch SO warm and soft,
But her sleep was broken and restless still
For turning often and of
From side to side. e.she mutier'd and rnoan'd,
And tossed her arms aloft.
AT first she started up,
And gazed on the vacant air
With look OF awe, as If she saw
Some dreadful phantom there;
And then in the pillow she buried her face,
From visions i'll to bear.
The very curtain shook,
Her terror was so extreme.
And the light that fell on the 'broidered quill,
Kept tremulous gleami [criet
And her voice was hollow and shooS as sh
Oh me that awful dream
That weary, weary walk,
Inthe church yards dismal ground,
And those horrible things with shady wings
That came and fitted 'round;--
Death, death, aud nothing but death.
In every sight aad sound.
And oh, those raaidens young,
Who wrought IN that dreary room,
With figures dropping and specter thin,
And checks without bloom;
And the voice that cried, FOR the pomp OF prid
We haste TO an early tomb.
For the pomp and pleasures ofpride,
We toll ike African slaves,
And only to earn home ut last,
Where yonder cypress waves
And then it poinfcG-l never saw
a ground SO full of graves.
And still the cotfins came,
With their sorrowfnl trains and slow;
Coffin after coffin still
A sad and sick ming ehow;-
From grief cfexempt, never had dreamt
ofsuch world Of wo!
or the hearts that daily brcuf,
Ofthc tears that hourly fall.
OF the many, many troubles Of life
That grieve this earthly ball
Disease and hunger, pnin and want,
But now dream Of them all.
For the blind and the cripple were there,
And the babe that pined for bread,
And the hou-eless man. and the widow poor,
Who begged to bury their dead!
Tie naked, Mas. that might have clad,
The fAmished might have fed.
The sorrow might have soothed.
And the uareeardcd tears;
For many throngiug shape was there,
rom long forgotten years;
Ay, even the poor rejected Moor
Who raised my childhood's fears.
Each pleading look, that long ago,
scanned with needless eye
Each face was gazing plainly there,
As when passed ii by.
Wn! We for me, if the past should be
Thus present when die.
No need of sulphurous lake,
No need Of fiery coal,
But only tha. crowd of human kind
Who wanted pity and dole;-
In everlasting retrospect,
To wiring my sinful soul
Alas, have walked through life.
Too needless of where I stond
Nay, helping to tramPle my fcllJw-worm,
And FL the burial sod;
Forgetting that even the sparrow falls
Not unmarked Of God.
drank the richest draughts,
And ate whatever is good
Fish aud fcsh and fowl and fruit
Supplied my hungry mood
Bur never remembered the wretched ones,
That starvc for want offuod.
dressed as the noble dress,
In cloth Of silver and gold.
With silk and satin, and costly furs,
In many ample fold;
But | never remembered the naked limbs
That frozc with winters cold
The wounds | might have healed.
The human sorrow and smart,
And yet it was never in my sotl
To play SO i'll pau;
But evil is wrought by want ofthought.
As well want of heart
She clasped her fervent hands,
And the tears began to stream,
Large and bitter, and fast they fell
Remorse extreme:
And now God grant that many Dame
Would dream the Lady's dream.