They grew in beauty, side by side, <br />They fill'd one home with glee; <br />Their graves are sever'd, far and wide, <br />By mount, and stream, and sea. <br /> <br />The same fond mother bent at night <br />O'er each fair sleeping brow; <br />She had each folded flower in sight, <br />Where are those dreamers now? <br /> <br />One, midst the forests of the west, <br />By a dark stream is laid, <br />The Indian knows his place of rest, <br />Far in the cedar shade. <br /> <br />The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one, <br />He lies where pearls lie deep; <br />He was the lov'd of all, yet none <br />O'er his low bed may weep. <br /> <br />One sleeps where southern vines are drest <br />Above the noble slain: <br />He wrapt his colours round his breast, <br />On a blood-red field of Spain. <br /> <br />And one o'er her the myrtle showers <br />Its leaves, by soft winds fann'd; <br />She faded midst Italian flowers, <br />The last of that bright band. <br /> <br />And parted thus they rest, who play'd <br />Beneath the same green tree; <br />Whose voices mingled as they pray'd <br />Around one parent knee! <br /> <br />They that with smiles lit up the hall, <br />And cheer'd with song the hearth, <br />Alas! for love, if thou wert all, <br />And nought beyond, oh earth!<br /><br />Felicia Dorothea Hemans<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-graves-of-a-household/
