No garland, fresh from Eden’s bowers,
   Could be more sweet than these dear flowers
     To each surviving friend;
   They’ll water them with falling tears,
   And nurse them through succeeding years,
     And from each ill defend.

   Bloom on, each weeping parent cried,—­
   My daughters planted you and died,—­
     You are most dear to me;
   Each now in smiling beauty stands,
   Where placed by these fair youthful hands,—­
     Sweet rose and lilac tree.

   Bloom on, bloom on, perfume the air,—­
   I love to see you flourish there,
     And in bright beauty bloom;
   Each tiny leaf I hold most dear,
   Although you oft call forth a tear
     For loved ones in the tomb.

   Bloom on, sweet flow’rs, while yet you may;
   Your fading leaves will soon portray
     The lovely, fragile form,
   Which passed from earth while skies seemed fair,
   Like vapors quiv’ring in the air,
     Before a coming storm.

   I gaze upon these opening flowers—­
   They bring a dream of blissful hours,
     When brighter germs were mine;
   Once on my throbbing bosom lay
   Sweet budding blossoms, fair as they,
     Fraught with immortal minds.

   ’Neath summer skies these flow’rs will fade—­
   Fair emblems of the youthful dead,
     But spring restores their bloom. 
   Just so the saints that droop and die,
   When Gabriel’s trump shall rend the sky,
     Will leave the mould’ring tomb.

   They’ll leave this dull, this earthly sod,
   And, in the garden of our God,
     Bloom with celestial grace,
   Where frost and mildew ne’er can blight;
   There, all enraptured with delight,
     God’s wondrous works they’ll trace.

FOOTNOTES: 

   [Footnote 2:  The Rose and Lilac trees, referred to above, were
   planted by two youthful sisters a short time before their
   death.]

LINES

Composed on the death of Mrs. Mary M. West, of Jay.

   Dear Mary, while thou art in heaven, at rest,
   We’re mourning thy absence, bereft and depressed;
   For thou wert so faithful, so winning and kind,
   That our hearts’ ev’ry fibre around thee entwined.

   How oft have we listened, unwilling to part,
   While sweet heavenly music gushed forth from thy heart,
   Till angels in glory, well pleased with the strain,
   Re-echoed it over the heavenly plain.

   The sound of thy voice we can never forget,
   Thy last parting smile sweetly lingers here yet;
   And since thy freed spirit to heaven was borne,
   Our hearts crave the boon o’er thy mem’ry to mourn.

   Adieu, dearest Mary, thy spirit has flown
   To those blissful regions where tears are unknown;
   No trials assail thee, no troubles or fears,—­
   The smile of thy Savior has dried up thy tears.