Sprig of shilelah/The tear

For other versions of this work, see The Tear ("On beds of snow the moon-beam slept").

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THE TEAR

On beds of snow the moon beam slept,
And chilly was the midnight gloom;
When by the damp grave Helen wept;
Sweet maid! it was her Lindor’s tomb.

A warm tear gush’d, the wintry air
Congeal’d it as it flow’d away;
All night it lay and ice-drop there;
At morn it glitter’d in the ray.

An angel wandering through his sphere,
Who saw this bright, this frozen gem;
To dew-ey'd Pity brought the tear
And fix’d it on her diadem.

FINIS.