William Baxter Lines on a Departed One (1845)

 

T H E   L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .
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CINCINNATI, AUGUST, 1845.

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O r i g i n a l .
L I N E S   O N   A   D E P A R T E D   O N E .
BY WILLIAM BAXTER.
DEPARTED one! what mem'ries rush
    Unbidden o'er the stricken heart--
Thoughts which are wakened only when
    The young and beautiful depart.

And such, indeed, to me thou wert,
    Who knew thy guileless spirit well,
Before it wing'd its upward flight,
    With kindred spirits, there to dwell.

I've met thee in the mountain path,
    Or seated near the well-known spring,*
So oft the scene of pensive thought,
    While list'ning to its murmuring.

I've met thee near the rippling stream,
    And oft beneath the vine-clad bower:
Each garden walk still speaks of thee,
    Where thou wert once the fairest flower.

Thy radiant smile, thy beaming eye,
    So often seen, I can't forget;
And through the heart's deserted hall,
    Thy merry laugh is ringing yet.

And oft upon the summer air,
    I've heard thy warblings floating by,
While sweeter yet, in solemn song,
    Was heard thy voice of melody.

Those lips are mute, the strains are hush'd
    Which seraphs might have join'd to sing;
But she who woke them, while on earth,
    Now rises on a seraph's wing.

Then I'll not mourn: the fragile flower,
    Which seem'd on earth to droop and die,
Will yet in lovelier hues expand,
    And bloom beneath a sunnier sky.

Grief cannot find an entrance there,
    To mar the joys of that abode;
But where eternal pleasures reign,
    She dwells amid the smiles of God--

There to enjoy that sacred rest,
    From sin and all its sorrows free,
With spirits like her own, to share
    Its joys through all eternity.
* A favorite resort of the deceased.

 

[The Ladies' Repository 5 (August 1845): 232.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "Lines on a Departed One" was first published in The Ladies' Repository, and Gatherings of the West: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 5, No. 8, August 1845, p. 232. This volume, edited by E. Thomson, was published in Cincinnati by L. Swormstedt and J. T. Mitchell for the Methodist Episcopal Church.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 8 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.

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