Poems (Sherwin)/Lines on a recent melancholy event

by Elizabeth Sherwin

LINES ON A RECENT MELANCHOLY EVENT.

Poor Annie was a pretty blue-eyed, kind-hearted girl, the only hope of an aged father, and he was her only friend. They were poor, but cheerful as poverty can be: he obtained his living by daily labour, and Annie was placed to service at the house of a neighbouring farmer.

"Without education, simple and unsuspecting, she listened to the improper addresses of her master's son.

As soon as the circumstance became known to her mistress, she was discharged in disgrace; her inhuman seducer refusing any recompense, even pecuniary.

Ashamed to return to the roof of her father in her present degraded position, and with a mind clogged by ignorance and burthened by guilt, she gave way to despair, and put a period to her existence by throwing herself into a pond near to her early home.

The air was calm, the sky serene and bright,
The gentle moon shed round her silvery light,
The twinkling stars in silent beauty beamed,
And earth the home of peace and beauty seemed.

But through the air a solemn pealing sound
Broke the dead calm which reigned on all around;
And echo, sighing, answered back the knell,
The lingering whisper of the passing bell.
At this lone hour, to shun the multitude,
Who press with vulgar gaze, with action rude,
Poor Annie to her latest home was borne,
The victim of deceit, of cruelty and scorn.
No sable weeds—no mimic grief was there,—
No stately pall concealed the homely bier;
One follower alone, with hoary head,
Bent low, and wept the unconscious dead.

A few brief moments, and the scene was closed.
Still o'er the grave where Annie's form reposed,
The wretched father knelt,—with accents wild,
In anguish mourning his departed child.