TO COL. T. L. ODOM.
Into a valley of sombre shade, With never a ray of light,My sorrowful heart, all cold and dumb, Was wrapped in a starless night.
Where once an altar of roses stood In the light of a sun-lit day,The darkness lay on a silent shrine, The flowers had fallen away,
And over the marble death had crept Like mildew over a tomb,Even the ashes love had left Were lost in the chilling gloom,
When suddenly, flashing through the night, A star of the grandest powerThrew its radiant, brilliant light Over life's drooping flower;
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