22
The Twin Pines.
"When sickness seized our household band,
Murmurs of love did you extend?
As sorrow pressed with iron hand,
Did your sad boughs with pity bend?
And on that night when roused from sleep
The burning homestead met our gaze,
Did ghastly terror o'er you creep,
As dumb, ye watched its lurid blaze?
Murmurs of love did you extend?
As sorrow pressed with iron hand,
Did your sad boughs with pity bend?
And on that night when roused from sleep
The burning homestead met our gaze,
Did ghastly terror o'er you creep,
As dumb, ye watched its lurid blaze?
"Upon that dark and mournful morn
In which our eldest-born went forth,
With manly courage girded on,
To join the armies of the north—
The wind that sighed your branches through,
Breathed it of warning or success?
Did ye waft forth a last adieu,
Or safe return to happiness?
In which our eldest-born went forth,
With manly courage girded on,
To join the armies of the north—
The wind that sighed your branches through,
Breathed it of warning or success?
Did ye waft forth a last adieu,
Or safe return to happiness?
"Still silent friends! and is there yet
To my fond search no answer given?
Oh never then may I forget
The trusting heart's appeal to heaven."
The God alone, who made them, knows
The bounded powers of shrub and tree,
While on mortals He bestows
His limitless eternity.
To my fond search no answer given?
Oh never then may I forget
The trusting heart's appeal to heaven."
The God alone, who made them, knows
The bounded powers of shrub and tree,
While on mortals He bestows
His limitless eternity.
Glen-Echo Home, August, 1862.
