The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1870-03-03
ssBut, oh fell Deaths untimely frost,
That nipt my flower sac ean."

It is said that Burns never heard OF her
death until he was on his way to meet her at
the marriage altar. He never forgot her
never ceased to love aud mourn for her No
one had ever before so filled the heart of this
hayward, passionate poet, and no one ever
afterwards was afble to make him forget bis
"Highlaud Mary" He once before took
leave of her 10 poem when he expected to
20 to the Indies, in this manner:
81 have sworn by the Heavens to my Mary,
have sworn by the Heavens to be true;
And sac may the Heave ms forget mo,
If forget my VOW"
He was faithful to his vow, and his poem
of Highland Mary is one evidence of it.
Perhaps the sweetest poem Burns ever wrote
was composed in the memory Of lovely Mary
Campbell. Years after her death, after
Burns had married and commenced housekeep-
ing, and had children about him, upon an
anniversary of Mary Gampbell's death, he
fell into fit of melancholy, which remained
upon him all day Late in the evening he
wandered out among his cattle and threw
himself down beside one Of his corn ricks,
and with his eyes fixed upon bright par
ticular STAR" composed the poem, 'To Mary
in Heaven"
s'Thou ling ring star, with less'ning ray,
That low st.to greet the early morn,
Again thou rsherest in the day
My Mary from my soul was torn.
Mary dear departed shade
Where is thy place of blssful rest?
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid
Hearst thou the groans that rend his breast!"
How every line of this verse speaks the
deserted and sad heart. Wife, the one who
should have filled the place in his heart once
occupied by his Mary; children, so many
pledges of love which should have called
away his heart from the one DOW in the heav-
ems, were all forgotten. and bis whole soul
goes out in an agony of desire after his long
lost but still dearly loved Mary.
80 Mary dear departed shade!
Where is thy place Of blissful rest?
Seest thou thy lover lowy laid
Hearst thou the groans that REID his breast?"
His heart was not with the one who had
placed her hand in his, and whom he had
borne away to his humble home as his we'd
ded wife, but way off in the heavens with
one he met and parted with in the woods Of
Montgomery.
s'That sacred hour can forget,
Can I forget the haliowed grove,
Where by the winding Ayr we met,
To live one dag of parting love ?"
The whole scene, the gureling brook with
pebblcd shore, the thiakening green woods
the fragrant birch and white hawthorn, the
flowers spriuging waDton to be priest by the
feet of his loved one, the singing of the
birds in the trees overhead, the faithful kiss
Of love, the phghted faith, the sacred en-
brace, the parting full tender, became agar,
and he continued his song:
IS i'll O er these scenes my mem'ry wakes,
And founaly broods with miser care;
Tine but tn impression stronger makes,
Gas streams their channels deeper wear.
Burns hastened, through dissipation, to al
early grave. In life remarkable for vcssi
tudes there are but few brigh5 spots, and tn,
brightest Of these is his love for Mary Camp
bell Had she lived she might have redeem
ed the pledges her strong faith and arden
love gave, that she would have reformed hin
and caused him to give to the world some
thing greater by far than anything he eve
| wrote. Even to her death we are indebted
| for two of the sweetest and sublimest poem
ever written, Highland Mary" and AT
Mary in Heaven