Then first we placed an empty chair
  And ev’ry breast was filled with gloom,
For he we knew, who should be there,
  That hour was absent in the tomb.

The jest and song were check’d awhile,
  But quickly we forgot the dead,
And o’er each face th’ arrested smile
  In all its former freedom spread.

For still our circle seem’d intact. 
  The lofty chorus rose as well
As when our numbers had not lack’d
  That voice the more in mirth to swell.

But we parted with a sadder mien
  And hands were clasped more kindly then,
For each one knew where death had been
  We might expect him o’er again.

Ah! wondrous soon our feast before
  A lessening group was yearly spread,
And all our joys were ruffled o’er
  With somber mem’ries of the dead.

The song and jest less rude became,
  Our voices low and looks more kind,
Each toast recall’d some cherish’d name
  Or brought a buried friend to mind.

At length, alas! we were but two
  With features shrivel’d, shrunk, and changed,
Whose faded eyes could scarcely view
  The vacant seats around us ranged.

But fancy, as we passed the bowl,
  Fill’d ev’ry empty chair again. 
Inform’d the silent air with soul
  And shaped the shadowy void to men.

The breezy air around us stirr’d
  With snatches of familiar song,
Nor cared we then how fancy err’d
  Since her delusion made us strong.

But now, I am the only guest,
  The grave—­the grave now covers all
Who joined me at the annual feast
  We kept in this deserted hall.

He paused and then his goblet fill’d,
  But never touch’d his lips the brim,
His arm was stay’d, his pulses still’d,
  And ah! his glazing eyes grew dim.

The farther objects in the room
  Have vanish’d from his failing sight;
One broad horizon spreads in gloom
  Around a lessening disc of light.

And then he seem’d like one who kept
  A vigil with suspended breath—­
So kindly to his breast had crept
  Some gentlest messenger of death.

THE PAST.

Still—­still the Earth each primal grace renews,
And blooms, or brightens with Creation’s hues: 
Repeats the sun the glories of the sky,
Which upward lured the earliest watcher’s eye;
Yet bids his beams the glowing clouds adorn
With all the charms of Earth’s initial morn,
And duplicates at eve the splendors yet
That fixed the glance, that first beheld him set.

LOVED AND LOST.

Love cannot call her back again,
  But oh! it may presume
With ceaseless accents to complain,
  All wildly near her tomb.

A madd’ning mirage of the mind
  Still bids her image rise,
That form my heart can never find
  Yet haunts my wearied eyes.