Aunt Sarah

Upon the threshold sits, by age bent down,
Aunt Sarah, bowing low her silver crown;
An eyeglass rides upon her bony nose,
I fancy her own funeral shroud she sews.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall,
When "Darling Sally" you were named by all?

What heretofore she did in dresses wear —
The folds and creases — now her face doth bear;
Clad now in faded rags, her dress I trow
Must have been new some twenty years ago.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall,
W!hen "Darling Sally" you were named by all?

I almost freeze when I behold her head,
Life's winter hath thereon its white snow shed;
And like a stork's nest in the chimney there,
Looks on her hoary head her straggling hair.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall,

When "Darling Sally" you were named, by all?

Her eyes, once bright, have left their native place,
Sunk in, and beautify no more her face.
They faintly flicker in a ghastly gloom,
As tapers left to burn in some death room.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall,
When "Darling Sally" you were named by all?

A barren plain, it seems, is now her breast,
As if beneath not e'en a heart did rest.
Her heart, not wholly dead, still pulsates there,
And sometimes does its old emotions share.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall,
When "Darling Sally" you were named by all?
Youth is a spendthrift, who will freely spend
His wealth and charms, and does not apprehend
The miser father— Age— who will s
Gather the treasures spent, take them away.
Aunt Sarah, do you still the days recall.
When "Darling bally" you were 'named by all?