The coffin, as I crossed the common lane,
Came sudden on my view; it was not here
A sight of every day, as in the streets
Of the great city — and we paused and asked
Who to the grave was going. It was one,
A village girl; they told us she had borne
An eighteen months' strange illness, pined away
With such slow wasting as had made the hour
Of death most welcome. To the house of mirth
We held our way and, with that idle talk
That passes o'er the mind and is forgot,
We wore away the hour. But it was eve
When homewardly I went, and in the air
Was that cool freshness, that discolouring shade
That makes the eye turn inward. Then I heard,
Over the vale, the heavy toll of death
Sound slow, and questioned of the dead again.
It was a very plain and simple tale.
She bore, unhusbanded, a mother's name,
And he who should have cherished her, far off
Sailed on the seas, self-exiled from his home,
For he was poor. Left thus, a wretched one,
Scorn made a mock of her, and evil tongues
Were busy with her name. She had one ill
Heavier: neglect, forgetfulness from him
Whom she had loved so dearly. Once he wrote,
But only once that drop of comfort came,
To mingle with her cup of wretchedness;
And when his parents had some tidings from him
There was no mention of poor Hannah there;
Or 'twas the cold enquiry, bitterer
Than silence. So she pined and pined away,
And for herself and baby toiled and toiled,
Till she sunk with very weakness; her old mother
Omitted no kind office, and she worked
Most hard, and with hard working barely earned
Enough to make life struggle. Thus she lay
On the sickbed of poverty, so worn
That she could make no effort to express
Affection for her infant — and the child
Whose lisping love perhaps had solaced her,
With strangest infantine ingratitude,
Shunned her as one indifferent. She was past
That anguish, for she felt her hour draw on,
And 'twas her only comfort now to think
Upon the grave. " Poor girl!" her mother said,
" Thou hast suffered much." " Aye mother; there is none
Can tell what I have suffered", she replied,
" But I shall soon be where the weary rest."
And she did rest her soon, for it pleased God
To take her to his mercy.