South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-07-28
Poetry.
OLD MADELINE.
By LUIGI LARCoM.

By LUCT LkRcoM.
OVER crumpled paper in her hand
Old Madeline wept.
nrim,y the candle fiicf cred on the stand;
UP the dark chimney fared q smouldering brand
The whole house slept.
Aud Medicines care had made that sleeuing sweet
For all day long
sne pattered to and fro with light, quick feet;
ana Wnlle her broom made nook and corner neal
She hummed song
broken singing, thin and pitiful,
And yet in tune.
With all that makes great lyrics musical
Il stopped the children, hurrying out Of school,
At night or noon
Now quaint hymn; now "Jamie on the sea;n
An anthem snatch
That sung in far thanksgivincs used 10 be.
In savage days before the land was free;
glee or catch;
No matter what-the children gathered near
For all and each.
Pathos of moaning wind through branches sere.
Mirth as of waves that break in sunset elsar
On some lone beach. ' p
Tonight she sat in silence. Every night
For year and year.
Over the print ana Se bgrTed gedqet beT gght
Reading through tears
To one name, written on the list of Dead"
Failing In the march, pursuing foes that fed,
Somewhere beside the road he lay, they said;
His grave none knew.
The tattered newspaper spread out to her
picture wide
Among vast alien hills the battles stir
A eeath-bed where none came to minister
To him who died.
A spot of green beside mountain road,
By warm winds kissed,
Where strange large roses opened hearts that
And over him their blood-red petals strewed
Whom love had missed.
For sweet maid Madeline had never guesed
Ralph cared for her trf
Save as friend while vainly be sought rest,
Sure that no tender feeling in her breast
For him would stir.
And still his image buried she within,
Beneath her thought,
Wondering what happier girl bis heart would win
sns drowned her yexing dreams in work-day din;
The war he sought.
And after he had fallen, s comrade came,
And told her how
Upon the battie-eve he b.eathed her name
Then Madeline said: None else my hand shall
Aud kept her vow.
With her ne lightest wooing ever sped.
No man might press
soothing hand upon her weary head,
Or whisper comfort to ihs heart that bied
With Loneliness.
For Madeline said: q Ralph surely waits for me
Beyond Deaths gate; -.
And might miss him through eternity
By joining fates with one less loved than he.
too can wait.
"I could not bear another lovers kiss,
Because feel
That somewhere from the heights of heavenly
bliss
His spirit hither yearns. as mine to his,
Forever leal."
This to her silent heart alone she said,
Hushing its moan
inst yet into her merriest singing strayed;
While all declared, cheerfuler old maid
Was never known"
Nor ever was there As her poor song worth
And witchery stole
From muf1ed minors in them had its birth
Out of crushed joy sprang kindliness and mirth; |
Her life was whole.
Whole, though it seemed a fragment, rent apart
From its true end.
Downward from deathless clinging reached her
Reader to comfort for its hidden smart
To all friend.
None saw her tears save God and her lost love.
Surely that dew
Kept memory blossoming fre sh in fields above:
A against deaths bars he must have fed the dove
That hattering few.
30 lived she faithful, an unwedded bride.
His hand Of snow
Age laid in blessing on her head. She died.
Do Ralph and Madeline now walk side by sideY
The angels know.
". Y. -IzdependeRt.