Marietta Holley Poems

Lift up your brown eyes, darling,
Not timidly and shy,
As in the fair, lost past, not thus
I'd have you meet my eye.
...

What though upon a wintry sea our life bark sails,
What though we tremble 'neath its cruel gales,
Its icy blast;
...

The years go by, but they little seem
Like those within our dream;
The years that stood in such luring guise,
Beckoning us into Paradise,
...

Now while the crimson light fades in the west,
And twilight drops her purple shadows low--
We stand with Memory on the mountain's crest,
...

Is his form hidden by some cliff or crag,
Or does he loiter on the shelving shore?
We know not, though we know he waits for us,
...

I know not where you wait for me in all your maiden sweetness,
Sweet soul in whom my life will find its rest, its full completeness;
...

When enwrapped in rosy pleasure,
Our careless pulses beat,
With a rhythm sweet, sweet,
...

Clear shone the moon, my mansion walls
Towered white above the wood,
Near, down the dark oak avenue
An humble cottage stood.
...

Clasp your arms round her neck to-night,
Little Nell,
Arms so delicate, soft and white,
And yet so strong in love's strange might;
...

Who falsely called thee destroyer, still white Angel of Death?
Oh not a destroyer here, but a kind restorer, thou,
...