A whisper came, and then the spirit fled
Like some sweet thought long prisoned in the heart.
A year ago I twined the lilies white
About her shroud, and with the coffin’s lace,
For she had loved them; all the long, long night
They press their waxen lips upon her face.
I heard the funeral bell toll sad and long—
My heart reverberates to-day the sound—
And then there came a prayer—a pause—a song,
And blossoms next were heaped upon a mound.