Hester
WHEN maidens such as Hester die,Their place ye may not well supply,Though ye among a thousand tryWith vain endeavour.A month or more hath she been dead,Yet cannot I by force be ledTo think upon the wormy bedAnd her together.
A springy motion in her gait,A rising step, did indicateOf pride and joy no common rateThat flushed her spirit:I know not by what name besideI shall it call: if ’twas not pride,It was a joy to that alliedShe did inherit.
Her parents held the Quaker rule,Which doth the human feeling cool;But she was trained in Nature’s school,Nature had blest her.A waking eye, a prying mind,A heart that stirs, is hard to bind;A hawk’s keen sight ye cannot blind,Ye could not Hester.
My sprightly neighbour! gone beforeTo that unknown and silent shore,Shall we not meet, as heretofore,Some summer morning—When from thy cheerful eyes a rayHath struck a bliss upon the day,A bliss that would not go away,A sweet fore-warning?
ALLAN CUNNINGHAM 1784–1842