Page:Poems Sigourney 1827.pdf/167

Low at his side the royal mourner lay
And gave the tempest of his anguish way.
No sound escapes, except the sob of wo,
Heart beats to heart, and tears in torrents flow,
A long embrace succeeds,—a rending sigh,—
A secret prayer of speechless agony,—
And then the prince his parting grief exprest,
With broken accents, and a throbbing breast,
As sighs in feeble tone, with laboring breath,
The hollow farewell from the bed of death.—
—"Depart in peace!—for thus that God ordains,
Who guides thy wanderings and will sooth thy pains,
Where'er thou journeyest, or whate'er thy care,
My heart shall follow, and my spirit share.
Look to the heavens!—for earth can yield no balm,
To cheer my sorrow, or my soul to calm.
Oh! may our friendship to our sons extend,
And to their sons our ardent vows descend,
Strong, brilliant and propitious be the fires
Caught from the ashes of their mouldering sires,
When we, at rest, above this changing sun,
Shall end in glory, what in wo begun."—
—One sad adieu they change,—one look they cast
Of parting love,—the longest,—and the last!—
The prince retires to Israel's warlike bands,
The tuneful shepherd hastes to foreign lands,
A stranger king with ready zeal supplies
That kind protection which his own denies.
Years fled away on pinions dark and slow,
And time assuaged the current of his wo.—
—Once as he mused upon a distant scene,
His love-cheer'd home, and native valleys green,