Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1872-05-04
seIeet poetrp.
[From the Christian Radical.1
A BALLAD OF THE SNOW.

/.
Sitting at my window low
Watching as the white flakes fall,
Softly, swiftly comes the snow,
Cov'ring town and high church wall.
In the churchyard lies asleep,
One so fair-so passing fair
In the town one walks and weeps,
Cries, "Ah fool $50 fair, SO fair!
III.
On q winters day long gone,
When the snow thus wove its spell.
AS a maiden sat alone,
'Thwart her sight a shadow fell.
Rising then to give 1t greeting,
Life and light II seemed to hold
Set her hearts young pulses beating
To music sweet as old;
Common on man man, It n.IS stSod Sats ees0rfa
Tenderness that could RaohHSS q hS 6STmd 6bS%Tned.
III.
Meeting oft, they talked together
or their books, their friends, and life
And she guessed at his endeayor
To win laurels in its strife.
AS for him-he said, 'She's fair
But with life / have q fight;
IT she loved me, would dare
Her dear passion to requite ~
Then he tried by look and vile,
Without sacrifice of pride,
If her eyes he might beguile
OF O secret they would hide.
Nv.
So he lingered-soying paught-
Waiting there u see some sign
But the maiden in her thought,
''He will never say, I'm thinen
For his fancy rows elsewhere,
And his Thoughts beyond me fly;
He but deems me .amclv fair,
Nor once answers to my cry.
Can | then make Known my pain,
Or by looks declare my love
l would die for very shame,
And his heart with scorn should move.'
V.
Then said he, "Why waste my days
In dream of leisure born,
When my soul its hopes would raise
TO II wreath by oouq'rors worn1
II fair her face and kind her ways,
Must | die for such as these
Loving eyes may meet my gaze
Hers but fascinate aud tease"
vi.
So for years they moved apart,
And lie won his crown from fame;
With it won q sneering heart,
Scornful even Of his name.
VII.
As the rivers in their flow,
Touched by sunshine, touched by shade,
Through the land as blessings go,
Tried to live the little maid.
AS the rivers on the sea,
At the last their burdens lay,
So from her eternity
Took her load Of care away.
VIII.
When she lay down family weak,
With chord of dying pain;
When her pulses feebly beat,
To her side he came again.
IN.
Soft her accent as she spoke
or the days they both had seen,
All the pact within him woke,
All things that might have been.
One by one they came 10 haunt him,
Plans with which his brain did teen,
And the hopes that did enchant him
In their guise of 'Love's young dream,'
When he thought, ''If could see
Thoughts within her heart that dwell,
Would give my souls Maybe
If she holds for me loves spell 7"
y.
All, such chance by Time was lost
In the droppings OF his sand
Now her life, by death-throes tossed,
Slips from his OBTAINING hand.
NJ.
i.eapcd this life from out her heart,
Found its way into her brain,
Made the spirit, kept apart
By bone and muscle all in vain.
And the maiden gently passed
With her vain love to the skies,
In ito realms TO find ut last
That sweet fruit in such love lies.
XII.
For he cried, "I've been unwise,
And my heart has missed Its mate,
As lived, my life sore dcspise
Aud will renew in purer state"
Low he vowed by that sweet face,
Gentle still in Deaths repose
They should meet, by Gods good grace,
When he, too, from death arose.
XII.
Sitting at my window low,
Watching as the white flakes fall,
Softly, swiftly comes the snow,
Cov'ring town and high church wall.
In the churchyards lies asleep
One SO fair-so passing fair
In the town one walks and weeps,
Cries 81 n fool $50 fair. So fair ~