Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1856-03-19
Paradise and the Peri. lie. the reader scan closely


IIaye you not heard the Poet tell
How came the dainty babic Bell
Into this world Of ours
The Gates Of Heaven were left a]ar.
With fulicd hands and dreamy eyes
She wandered out of Paradise!
She saw this planet, like a star,
Hung in the depths Of purple even
Its bridges running to and fro,
DER which the wh,c-winged Seraphs go,
Bearing the holy Dead to lleayen
She touched q bridge of Rowers-thosc feet,
So light they did not bend the bells
Of the celestial asphodcls!!
They fell like dew upon the flowers!
And all the air grew strangely sweet!
And thus came dainty babie Bell
Into this world Of ours
She came and brought delicious May
The swallows built beneath The caves;
Like sunbeams in and out the leaves,
The robins went the rc-long day;
The ! ly swung its nol,eless bell,
And DER the porch the trembling vine
Seemed bursting with its veins of wine!
O. earth was full Of pleasant smell,
When came the dainty babe Bell
lntn this world Of ours
o habie, dainty babie Bell!
How fair she grew from day 10 day!
What woman nature filled her cycs.
What poetry within them lay!
Those deep and tender twilight eyes,
So full of meaning pure, and bright
As if she yet stood in the light
or those oped gates Of Paradise
And we loved babie more and more:
I<f.
Such holy love was born:
We felt we had a link between
This real world and that unseen-
The land Of deathess morn!
And for the love Of those dear eyes,
For love of her whom God led forth
The mothers being ceased on earth
When babie came from Par.'iisc!-
For love uf him who sm"te our lives,
And woke the chords Of joy and pain;
We sail. Sweet Christ our hearts bent dowl
Like yolets after rain
And now the orchards which were once
All white and rosy in their bloom
Filling the crystal heart of air
With gentle pulses Of pcrfume-
Were thick with yellow juicy fruit,
The plums were globes of honey rare,
The grapes were purpling in the grange;
And Time wrought just rs rich change
In little hbie Bell
Her pctn form more perfect grew,
And in her features we could trace,
In softened curves, her mothers face;
Her angel nature ripened too.
We thought her lovely when she came,
But shc was holy, sanity now
Around her paie and lofty brow
We thought we saw ring Of flame!
Sometimes she said a few strange words
Whose meaning lay beyond our reach:
Guls hand had taken away the seal
Which held the portals Of her speech!
She never was n chill to us;
We never held her beings key!
We could not teach her holy things;
She was Christ's self in purity!
1t came upon us by degrees
We saw its shadow ere it fell,
The knowledge that our God had sent
His messenger for babic Bell!
We shulderrd with unanguagcd pain,
And all our thoughts ran into tears
Aud all our hopes were changed to fears
The sunshine into dismal rain
AIuul we cried in our belief
80, sIne us gently, gently, God!
Teach us tn bend and kiss the rod,
And perfect grow thro grief"
All, how we loved her, God can tell:
Her little heart was cased in ours
They're broken caskets-babie Bell
At last he came, the messenger,
The messenger from unseen lands;
And what did dainty babe Bell?
She ony crossed her little hands.
She only Looked more meek and FAIR
We parted hack her silken hair
We laid some buds upon her brow
Deaths bride arrayr,l in flowers!
And thus went dainty babe Bell
Out of this world of ours