Poems (Frances Elizabeth Browne)/Mount Auburn
MOUNT AUBURN.
Sweet Auburn! which with verdure and with bloomAdorns the precincts of the darksome tomb,Divests the grave of half its dread array,Plants living flowers upon the lifeless clay,Hallows the memory of the cherished dead,And turns to balmy dews the tears we shed,Accept a tribute from a stranger's pen,Meet resting-place of brave and pious men!
There marble monument and sculptured bustSeem to reanimate the silent dust,Give to each grave a voice, whose thrilling toneThe sorrowing hearts of friends and kindred own! Imagination revels in the scene,And fills with fancied forms each alley green,—Hears Channing preach with eloquence divine,—Spurzheim philosophy's wise precepts join,—Heroes address their friends in martial strains,Tell them of Bunker's Hill and battle-plains;Others, who braved the dangers of the sea,To serve their country and preserve it free,The spangled banner o'er the waves unfurled,The naval bulwarks of the Western world,Now safely landed on a peaceful shore,Where wars no longer rage, nor billows roar,Still hovering round, may angel wings expand,Be guardian spirits of their native land.
But see where yonder little cherub lies,As if sweet sleep had gently closed her eyes!One beauteous foot across the other thrown,Calm she reclines, in infant grace, alone.While gazing on that face so sweet and mild,The parents still may dream they have a child;For she, alas! so deeply cherished here,She was their only one,—thus doubly dear!
Nor scorn we to appropriate a placeTo yonder emblem of the canine race;But honored still for ages yet to come,The faithful dog here guards his master's tomb!In sculptured stone immortalized is he,—A noble tribute to fidelity!Beside the friends in life he loved to guard,In death he gains this justly earned reward.Bright resting-place of faithful hearts and true,Auburn! New England's pride and boast, adieu!