Poems (Edwards)/The Orphan's Lament

by Matilda Caroline Smiley Edwards

THE ORPHAN'S LAMENT.

The world, for me, no longer wears
 A beauty or a bloom;
Since all I loved and cherished most,
 Lies buried in the tomb.

I once was happy as a lark,
 But now those days are gone,
And I am left an orphan child,
 All desolate and lone.

I do remember well the time,
 When I was glad and free,
A little laughing merry child,
 Upon my father's knee.

When on my gentle mother's breast
 I laid my nestling head,
And listened with attention deep,
 To all the words she said.

And when low kneeling at her feet,
 She taught me how to pray;
I never thought such love as hers,
 Could ever pass away.

But she is gone—that mother dear,
 Gone to a world on high—
Gone to a home, where tears no more,
 Can dim her cloudless eye.

I know she is an angel now,
 Among the saints in light;
And when I lay my weary head
 Upon my bed at night,

I feel that she is near me still,
 Her orphan child to keep,
To fan me with her spirit wing
 While silently I sleep.

I have no father—mother—friends;
 Alone I am on earth;
A stranger in a stranger's land,
 Beside a stranger's hearth.

There's none to love and bless me here,
 Since my dear mother died;
Oh, would that I were sleeping now,
 Thou loved one! by thy side.

But mother! when I go from hence
 I'll meet thee in the skies,
Where parting never comes again,
 And love no longer dies.