A Requiem + 

O, insatiable monster! Could’st thou not + 

In pity turn aside thy venomed shaft + 

From her my gifted, darling friend? + 

Has sympathy within thy breast + 

No trysting place? + 

That thou must come + 

At spring-time when the flowerets bloom + 

To bear my loved one to the tomb? + 

So young was she; life’s woes had not yet dimmed + 

The joyous sunshine of her girlhood’s days; + 

She did not quaff the dregs of time, + 

But, like some rosebud prematurely culled, + 

She sped away, and o’er her grave + 

So peacefully the willows wave, + 

And dewdrops, her calm bosom lave. + 

Tread not the earth where sleeps my loved one’s form; + 

But place it lightly on her marble brow. + 

Bid birdies sing at set of sun + 

To gladden Fannie’s lowly home; + 

Bid rippling springs with shining spray, + 

And sylvan notes and songsters lay + 

Unite, to chase the gloom away. + 

Blest child! she did not tarry long, and yet⁠— + 

O, happy thought⁠—she did not live in vain, + 

If truly she did seek and find + 

The “Pearl of Price,” that precious boon, + 

Then ne’er to her could come too soon + 

The summons to an early tomb. + 

Blest child, rest! while gentle zephyrs breathe + 

Their fragrance through the waving trees; + 

All nature decked in gorgeous array + 

Is reveling now, but soon alas! + 

Like thee, ’twill fade. + 

The autumn’s knell + 

Will ere long peal like funeral bell + 

Its dirgelike sounds, “Friend, fare thee well.” + 