Zinzendorff and Other Poems/Death of a Young Lady at the Retreat for the Insane

4045236Zinzendorff and Other PoemsDeath of a Young Lady at the Retreat for the Insane1836Lydia Huntley Sigourney


DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY AT THE RETREAT FOR THE INSANE.


Youth glows upon her blossom'd cheek,
    Glad beauty in her eye,
And fond affections pure and meek
    Her every want supply:
Why doth her glance so wildly rove
    Some fancied foe to find?
What dark dregs stir her cup of love?
    Go ask the sickening mind!

They bear her where with cheering smile
    The hope of healing reigns
For those whom morbid Fancy's wile
    In torturing bond constrains;
Where Mercy spreads an angel-wing
    To do her Father's will,
And heaven-instructed plucks the sting
    From Earth's severest ill.

Yet o'er that sufferer's drooping head
    No balm of Gilead stole,
Diseas'd Imagination spread
    Dark chaos o'er the soul;
But recollected truths sublime
    Still fed Devotion's stream,
And beings from a sinless clime
    Blent with her broken dream.

Then came a coffin and a shroud,
    And many a bursting sigh,

With shrieks of laughter long and loud,
    From those who knew not why;
For she, whom Reason's fickle ray
    Oft wilder'd and distress'd
Hush'd in unwonted slumber lay,
    A cold and dreamless rest.

Think ye of Heaven! how glorious bright
    Will break its vision clear,
On souls that rose from earthly night
    All desolate and drear;
So ye who laid that stricken form
    Down to its willing sleep,
Snatch'd like a flowret from the storm,
    Weep not as others weep.