And the desert’s parting sun
A field of death survey’d.
[“Mrs Hemans’ funeral poems are among her most impressive works: the music of her verse, through which an under-current of sadness may always be traced, was never more happily employed than in lamenting the beloved and early called, or in bidding
‘Hope to the world to look beyond the tombs.’
I need only mention a few lyrics, ‘The Farewell to the Dead,’ (in the Lays of Many Lands;) ‘The Exile’s Dirge,’ (in the Songs of the Affections;) ‘The Burial of an Emigrant’s Child in the Forest,’ (in the Scenes and Hymns of Life;) and the ‘Burial in the Desert,’ a noble poem, published among her poetical remains. The introduction of the two following stanzas of a more concise and monumental character,[399] though they have already appeared in print, will not, I am sure, be objected to as illustrating the above remark.”—Chorley’s Memorials of Mrs Hemans, p. 26-7.]
[ [399] Vide “Monumental Inscription,” p. 356.
TO A PICTURE OF THE MADONNA.
“Ave Maria! May our spirits dare
Look up to thine, and to thy Son’s above?” Byron.
Fair vision! thou’rt from sunny skies,