To this life's bitter December To this life's snow-drifted track. And I thought, with a pan and a shudder, And saw the frost on the window Ah, me how the wind is blowing, How lonely will be the way That leads to the little church-yard, How fast the snow is fall ing! I wish you had left me yet Searching the summer forest, See also "AFTER DEATH" by Christina Georgina Ros setti, Vic. An. page 376. The grief expressed in the following Victorian lyrics is unequaled by anything found in the Elizabethan lyrics. In the first we have a mother driven almost to insanity over the death of her little child. LAMENT By Roden Noel (Vic. An. page 201) "I am lying in the tomb, love, Tho 'I move within the gloom, love, Men deem life not fled, dear, Deem my life not fled, Tho' I with thee am dead, dear, I with thee am dead, O my little child! What is the gray world darling, Where the worm lies curl'd, darling, The deathworm lies curl'd? They tell me of the spring, dear! Do I want the spring? Will she waft upon her wing, dear, The joy-pulse of her wing, O my little child. Would they put me out of pain, dear, Since I may not live arain, dear, I am lying in the grave, love, In thy little grave, Yet I hear the wind rave, love, I would lie asleep, darling, With thee lie asleep, Unhearing the world weep, darling, Little children weep! O my little child." 1 1. This poem is very like a stanza or two of Kipling's, where mother grief is heart breaking. (Con. foot note next pare) (Continuation foot note pare 71) "O fest I have held in my hand, O hands at my heart to catch, How should they know the way to go, And how should they lift the latch?" And the old widow says to the sorrowing young mother: "Lie still dear lamb, lie still; The child is passed from harm, 'Tis the ache in your breast that broke our rest And the feel of an empty arm. " |