The Wedding.
O marriage-bells, your clamor tells
Two weddings in one breath.
SHE marries whom her love compels:
— And I wed Goodman Death!
My brain is blank, my tears are red;
Listen, O God: — "I will," he said: —
And I would that I were dead.
Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain
Come and stand with a ghastly twain.
My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres
To wed a bride with bloody tears.
Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily:
Life-bells to her, death-bells to me:
O Death, I am true wife to thee!
____ Macon, Georgia, 1865.
The Palm and the Pine.
From the German of Heine.
In the far North stands a Pine-tree, lone,
Upon a wintry height;
It sleeps: around it snows have thrown
A covering of white.
It dreams forever of a Palm
That, far i' the Morning-land,
Stands silent in a most sad calm
Midst of the burning sand.
____ Point Lookout Prison, 1864.
Spring Greeting.
From the German of Herder.