Spirit of the age. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1849-1865, 1858-11-03

~ VIVA INV A0A IVY Wv Wv nv -
death was almost come, !.
ne oped her eyes and cast a glance 4
f melting tenderness, and said: I
Come, mother, come and kiss thy childi l
nee more I'd feel thy sweet embrace, /
he last time hear thy loving voice. !
know I'm dying-bid my friends
Draw near and take the parting kiss" !
With streaming eyes and trembling hearts
hey gathered round the snow-white couch,
the dying pledge Of love
sweeter warnings from ner lips,
Then warmly pressed her feeble hand
And sighed a lingering farewell"
Again she spoke-they listened all:
Dear friends, | ask one last kind pledge
Soon | shall sleep in silent death =
Prepare my grave beneath yon elm
And bury me at eventide,
When stars are shining in the sky.
Place over me a marble block
Engrave no name-but cut a star
Upon the surface-then a hand
With finger pointing to the star.
And mark should Morven e'er return,
Pray tell him that | begged you this.
/ debut oh beyond all dreams
0fjoy hat soul e'er dreamed below
The real ecstacy of Heaven
Steals richly on my rising soul.
| debut only de to Lve;
We part-but only part to meet"
This day, afar, in stranger land
Young Morven wandered lone and sad
Away from life's tumultuous strife.
Beside a purling stream he lay
His wearied iimbs-and ~pensive, unused.
The world had not been kind to him.
1t gave him harsh ingratitude
And bitter scorn and cruelty
For all he suffered for its good.
He wept and moaned his hapless lot,
And viewed the earth as one wide scene
OF vanity and s%elishness.
This led his memory away
To other and delightful days.
Sweet Linda rose in visions bright
And then he unused on her and Heaven.
A calmness came upon his soul
And musing peacefully-he slept.
Then Fancy rose and ruled the mind
Creating, freshly, vanished hours,
And lading them with pleasures gone.
So faithful was she to the past
He seemed to live it all again.
But soon she changed-and with his trust
Enchanted by her truthfulness-
She pictured to him startling things.
She told him that he was forgot
That Linda loved another now.
She gave him echoes of her words
AS she renounced her olden vow -
And to another pledged her all.
This fiercely reused his sleeping soul.
He walked like one who dreams the hand
OF dread assassin aims the blow
OF death against his naked breast.
~ ~Sl~NSn-sSes.stranoe-'twas oEerful-
He strove to drive it from his mind,
But all in vain-it would seem true;
Till with a doleful, anguished voice
He uttered this soliloquy:
"Oh Linda! Linda Can it be!
The world is ruthless-friends untrue.
The past | love, but that is gone.
The future looks all p~leasureless
Save what of joy may gladden. it
BY her fidelity and love.
And if she is false-why should l live?
If she be false-life's light is fed.
If she be false-the world is false,
For she was truest of the world.
And then to think I'm so deceived
By one | loved with such a love!
! should have deemed her pledged to me
Without the fervent pledges given.
She smiled sometimes, when we would me
With gentleness enough to still
Inc raging OF o breaking heart
She spoke sometimes with angel tone
Such words as linger sweetly yet
Like music from the wales of Peace.
Ten thousand little favors done
Proclaimed a loving woman's love.
These smiles and words and favors all
Or each would make it tredchery
And deep deception were she false.
How base the crime of dark deceit!
1t was the primal fount of sin.
1t withered all of Eden's bowers
And stained her every crystal stream.
1t is the darkest trophy-gem
Whose lurid sparkling crowns the brow
Of him who reigns, the Prince of woe.
If would be on earth a fiend,
Deception first should fill my soul
And if a iend I'd ever live,
I'd wed deceiving to my life.
1t is tn antithesis of Truth
Then is it black as Truth is bright
And Truth is bright enough for Heaven.
DfaLse-her fall is one that's less
Alone than that which angels feel"
Overwhelmed with thoughts like these
paused,
And changed his words to saddest tears.
Now sweetly on the silent air
Shrill warblings foated from the grove /:
The nightingale, with lively strain,
/ Was singing welcome to the stars
That sparkled out in joyous throng.t
Unwittingly he looked away
To where the Token Star still shone-.
A beam of beauty kissed his soul
And walked it from its ~reverie.