The Graves of a Household

They grew in beauty side by side,
They fill’d one home with glee;--
Their graves are sever’d far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.

The same fond mother bent at night
O’er each fair sleeping brow:
She had each folded flower in sight--
Where are those dreamers now?

One, midst the forest of the West,
By a dark stream is laid--
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar-shade.

The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one--
He lies where pearls lie deep;
He was the loved of all, yet none
O’er his low bed may weep.

One sleeps where southern vines are drest
Above the noble slain:
He wrapt his colours round his breast
On a blood-red field of Spain.

And one--o’er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fann’d;
She faded ’midst Italian flowers--
The last of that bright band.
And parted thus they rest, who play’d
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they pray’d
Around one parent knee!

They that with smiles lit up the hall,
And cheer’d with song the hearth!--
Alas, for love! if thou wert all,
And naught beyond, O Earth!