Felicia Hemans

“ Soft airs through braided locks in perfume sighing,
Glad pulses beating unto music's call?
—Silence! the minstrels pause—and hark! a sound;
A strange quick rustling which their notes had drown'd!
And lo! a light upon the dancers breaking—
Not such their clear and silvery lamps had shed!
From the gay dream of revelry awaking,
One moment holds them still in breathless dread;—
The wild fierce lustre grows—then bursts a cry—
Fire! through the hall and round it gathering—fly! ”

“ This pillar was erected in the year 1656, by Ann Countess Dowager of Pembroke, for a memorial of her last parting, in this place, with her good and pious mother, Margaret, Countess Dowager of Cumberland, on the 2d April, 1616: in memory whereof she hath left an annuity of 4l. to be distributed to the poor of the parish of Brougham, every 2d day of April for ever, upon the stone-table placed hard by. ”

“ Never on earth, our aching eyes shall meet,
Past words of welcome to our household door,
And vanish'd smiles, and sounds of parted feet—
Spring! midst the murmurs of thy flowering trees,
Why, why reviv'st thou these?
Vain longings for the Dead!—why come they back
With thy young birds, and leaves, and living blooms? ”