Poems (Truesdell)/Hallowed Ground
[My mother and step-mother sleep side by side in the village church-yard of my native home.]
HALLOWED GROUND.
Sister! this is a hallowed spot: Here lowly bend with me, Above their graves, where side by side They sleep so peacefully.
Memorials of departed worth It has been mine to bring, And lay upon a shrine of tears A poet's offering.
But now, a holier task is mine; A daughter's heart would pay This grateful tribute, while she weaves A short and simple lay.
I was too young to know my loss, When my own mother died; But well I learned to prize the worth Of this one by her side.
Sister! do yon remember, dear, The last sad hour we kept Our nightly vigils round her bed, And watched while others slept?
Yes,—though to distant lands you go, To many a distant spot,—I know the memory of that hour Will never be forgot.
But as the ancients would embalm Their friends, when life has fled,So we will bear within our hearts The memory of the dead.