Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1881-11-16
The ONE EVE LAMB.

What bitter words were said tonight
Beside my hearthstone desolate
What maddening sorrow brake the gloom
OF this forever-haunted room
When solemn twilight fell,
And /, now robbed of my delight,
Came honeward, all at war with Fate,
And deafened by her funeral knen
Before the daisied sods were placed
Upon her grave, my one-year w1fe,
Before the blossoms, fresh and fair,
We're hidden from the outer air
Upon her cofin-lid,
A stranger claimed with awful haste
The right to weep for that spent life,
Nor could I those hot tears forbid.
He came from far-off land of gold,
Whose shores the southern waters lave;
He came to scatter at her feet
Worlds wealth and loves, to make complete
Their lives with perfect end;
To claim her promise given of old,
And found the silence of grave,
Without the right that grave to tend.
And I, to whom they gave her hand,
With full assurance of her heart,
/, who year ago laid down
The dream of fame that was to crown
The scholars round of toll,
And lived tc guard my wife 1 stand
Aghast, COMPOUNDED at the part
Iplayed, ny darling's life to spoil.
thought to make her so content,
thought that love must answer love.
I spent the wealth that God had given
AS freely the dews of heaven,
To beautify her lot;
fenced with love the way she went,
hung loves canopy above,
But now know she needed not.
She was my wife, she wore my ring,
My jewels shone upon her breast,
And while thought that time would be
friend to my young wife and me,
And b nd us soul to soul,
Like wandering dove upon the wing,
Her wandering spirit found no rest.
had no power to make her whole.
One year she went upon her way,
The mistress of mine ancient halls,
One year she blessed my quiet life,
One year-one little year-my wife,
And now the tale is told;
I laid her in her grave to-day,
But on that grave the shadow falls
Of one she loved in days of old.
my one eve lamb I" he said to me,
This evening when the twilight fell,
SO The poor eve lamb her owners sold
To thee for shameful greed of gold,
My lamb that thou hast slain;
For it was death to link to thee
The beating heart that loved me well,
And she hath persisted of her pain"
And then he cursed me in his grief:
Oh God! could find curses too,
To think of all my wasted cares,
My love, my longings, and my prayers,
For one weak woman's heart:
But bitter words bring no relief
For love SO old, for grief so new;
No curse hath healings for a smart.
She was my wife, she wore my ring,
But now I know she was nay slave,
1 know each tender look and smile
Came from heart that ached the while
For love of one away;
/ could not win the blessed thing,
Her girlish love-the gift she gave
Another in a far-off day.
He, coming home to claim his wife,
Lies prone upon the church-yard sod,
And I would gladly die to win
The peace my wife lies folded in.
My wifei my wife said L?
All, Heaven the riddle of this life
Is hard to read. She is with God,
Nor can claim her though do.
She was my wife, but was not mine.
I bought her, as he said, with gold,
But in my heart of hearts 1 am
Clean from all hurt of his eve lamb;
did not steal wife,
But had no instinct to divine
Between heart free-given or sold;
And so wrecked my darling's life.
All the Year Round.