CASA WAPPY.*

I.

AND hast thou sought thy heavenly home,

Our fond, dear boy

The realms where sorrow dare not come, Where life is joy?

Pure at thy death, as at thy birth,

Thy spirit caught no taint from earth,

Even by its bliss we mete our dearth,

Casa Wappy!

II.

Despair was in our last farewell,

As closed thine eye;

Tears of our anguish may not tell,

When thou didst die;

Words may not paint our grief for thee,

Sighs are but bubbles on the sea

Of our unfathom'd agony,

Casa Wappy!

* The self-appellative of a beloved child.

III.

Thou wert a vision of delight
To bless us given ;

Beauty embodied to our sight-
A type of Heaven :

So dear to us thou wert, thou art
Even less thine own self, than a part
Of mine, and of thy Mother's heart,
Casa Wappy!

IV.

Thy bright, brief day knew no decline-

'Twas cloudless joy;

Sunrise and night alone were thine,

Beloved boy!

This morn beheld thee blithe and gay;
That found thee prostrate in decay;
And, ere a third shone, clay was clay,

Casa Wappy!

V.

Gem of our hearth, our household pride,

Earth's undefiled,

Could love have saved, thou hadst not died, Our dear, sweet child!

Humbly we bow to Fate's decree;

Yet had we hoped that Time should see
Thee mourn for us, not us for thee,

Casa Wappy!

VI.

Do what I may, go where I will,
Thou meet'st my sight;

There dost thou glide before me still-
A form of light!

I feel thy breath upon my cheek,
I see thee smile, I hear thee speak,
Till oh! my heart is like to break,

Casa Wappy!

VII.

Methinks, thou smil'st before me now,
With glance of stealth;

The hair thrown back from thy full brow
In buoyant health:

I see thine eyes' deep violet light,
Thy dimpled cheek carnation'd bright,
Thy clasping arms so round and white,

Casa Wappy!

VIII.

The nursery shows thy pictured wall,
Thy bat, thy bow,

Thy cloak and bonnet, club and ball;
But where art thou?

A corner holds thine empty chair;
Thy playthings idly scatter'd there,
But speak to us of our despair,

Casa Wappy!

IX.

Even to the last, thy every word-
To glad to grieve—

Was sweet, as sweetest song of bird
On summer's eve;

In outward beauty undecay'd,

Death o'er thy spirit cast no shade,

And, like the rainbow, thou didst fade,

Casa Wappy!

X.

We mourn for thee, when blind blank night
The chamber fills;

We pine for thee, when morn's first light
Reddens the hills;

The sun, the moon, the stars, the sea,
All-to the wall-flower and wild-pea-

Are changed: we saw the world thro' thee,

Casa Wappy!

XI.

And though, perchance, a smile may gleam Of casual mirth,

It doth not own, whate'er may seem,

An inward birth:

We miss thy small step on the stair;
We miss thee at thine evening prayer;
All day we miss thee-every where-
Casa Wappy!

XII.

Snows muffled earth when thou didst go,

In life's spring-bloom,

Down to the appointed house below-
The silent tomb.

But now the green leaves of the tree,
The cuckoo, and "the busy bee,"
Return; but with them bring not thee,

Casa Wappy!

XIII.

'Tis so; but can it be-(while flowers
Revive again)-

Man's doom, in death that we and ours
For aye remain?

The

Oh! can it be, that, o'er the grave, grass renew'd should yearly wave, Yet God forget our child to save ?—

Casa Wappy!

XIV.

It cannot be; for were it so

Thus man could die,

Life were a mockery-Thought were woe

And Truth a lie

Heaven were a coinage of the brain

Religion frenzy-Virtue vain

And all our hopes to meet again,

Casa Wappy!