Martha Washington
Written for the “Martha Washington Court Journal”.
Down cold snow-stretches of our bitter time,When windy shams and the rain-mocking sleetOf Trade have cased us in such icy rimeThat hearts are scarcely hot enough to beat,Thy fame, O Lady of the lofty eyes,Doth fall along the age, like as a laneOf Spring, in whose most generous boundariesFull many a frozen virtue warms again.To-day I saw the pale much-burdened formOf Charity come limping o’er the line,And straighten from the bending of the stormAnd flush with stirrings of new strength divine,Such influence and sweet gracious impulse cameOut of the beams of thine immortal name!
Baltimore, February 22d, 1875.