Where Potomac’s stream is flowing, Virginia’s border through;
Where the white-sailed ships are going, Sailing to the ocean blue;
Hushed the sound of mirth and singing— Silent every one—
While the solemn bells are ringing By the tomb of Washington.
Chorus:—Tolling and knelling. With a sad, sweet sound;
O’er the waves the tones are swelling. By Mount Vernon’s sacred ground.
Long ago the warrior slumbered’ Our country’s father slept;
Long among the angels numbered— They the hero-soul have kept.
But the children’s children love him And his name revere;
So, where willows wave above him, Sweetly, still, his knell, you hear.
Sail, Oh ships, across the billows, And bear the story far,
How he sleeps beneath the willows,— “ First in peace and first in war.”
Tell, while sweet adieus are swelling, Till you come again.
He within the hearts is dwelling Of his loving countrymen.
The snow had begun in the gloaming. And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway With a silence deep and white.
Every pine and fur and hemlock Wore ermine too dear for an earl,
And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl.
From sheds new-roofed with Carrara Came chanticleer’s muffled crow;
The stiff rails softened to swan’s-down And still fluttered down the snow.
I stood and watched by the window The noiseless work of the sky.
And the sudden flurries of snow-birds. Like brown leaves whirling by.
I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn Where a little headstone stood;
How the flakes were folding it gently. As did robins the babes in the wood .
Up spoke our own little Mabel, Saying, “ Father, who makes it snow?”
And I told of the good All-father Who cares for us here below.
Again I looked at the snow-fall And thought of the leaden sky
That arched o’er our first great sorrow, When that mound was heaped so high.
I remembered the gradual patience That fell from that cloud like snow.
Flake by flake, healing and hiding The scar that renewed our woe.
And again to the child I whispered. “The snow that husheth all.
Darling, the merciful Father Alone can make it fall!”
Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; And she, kissing back, could not know
That my kiss was given to her sister, Folded close under deepening snow
