Poems (Odom)/Kate Nailer
KATE NAILER.
I braided her shining tresses Away from her stainless brow;And crowned her with bridal roses As white as unfallen snow.With the chrism of love upon her She stood in the chamber there,As pure as the veil that softened The gleam of her golden hair.
Like some proud ungathered lily, So fair in her girlish grace;With not one warm tint flushing Her passionless, beautiful face.We looked on her radiant whiteness Untinged by a rosy breath;And talked of her marble beauty— Alas! God named it death.
We little thought as she whispered The tremulous bridal vow, 'T was the pure white light of heaven We saw on her sinless brow.A bright, brief season of gladness Swept over the bridegroom and bride,Then Kate and her brave young lover Slept silently side by side.
To-day as I stand in her chamber And draw back the curtain of years,The floods of the past break upon me And deluge my spirit with tears.I turn from the sorrowful picture, The curtain falls back in its place,And closely beside me is breaking Her smile on a frank, boyish face.
"Kate's smile, with the eyes of his father," How often 't is lovingly said,With a kiss for the boy they have left us And tenderest thoughts of the dead.Asleep in their dreamless resting— Twin graves on the green hillside—They lie in their clay-cold chamber, The bridegroom and beautiful bride.