THEY loved one another! young Edward and his wife, <br />And in their cottage-home they dwelt, apart from sin and strife. <br />Each evening Edward weary came from a day of honest toil, <br />And Mary made the fire blaze, and smiled a cheerful smile. <br />Oh! what was wealth or pomp to them, the gaudy glittering show, <br />Of jewels blazing on the breast, where heaves a heart of woe! <br />The merry laugh, the placid sleep, were theirs; they hated sloth, <br />And all the little that they had, belonged alike to both, <br />For they loved one another! <br /> <br />They loved one another; but one of them is gone, <br />And by that vainly cheerful hearth poor Edward sits alone. <br />He gazes round on all which used to make his heart rejoice, <br />And he misses Mary's gentle smile, he misses Mary's voice. <br />There are many in this chilly world who would not care to part, <br />Tho' they dwell together in one home, and ought to have one heart, <br />And yet they live! while never more those happy ones may meet; <br />And the echo from her home is gone of Mary's busy feet: <br />And they loved one another! <br /> <br />They loved one another! but she hath past away, <br />And taken with her all the light, the sunshine of his day; <br />And Edward makes no loud lament, nor idly sits and mourns, <br />But quietly goes forth at morn, and quietly returns. <br />The cottage now is still and dark, no welcome bids him home, <br />He passes it and wanders on, to sit by Mary's tomb. <br />Oh! weep my friends-for very sad and bitter it must be <br />To yearn for some familiar face we never more may see- <br />When we loved one another!<br /><br />Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/they-loved-one-another/
