(原版)澳大利亞語文第四冊 LESSON 30
LESSON 30 THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD
THE GRAVES OF A HOUSEHOLD
FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS (1793-1835): English poetess; authoress of many charming lyrics and ballads.
THEY grew in beauty, side by side,
They filled one home with glee;—
Their graves are severed, far and wide,
By mount, and stream, and sea.
The same fond mother bent at night
O’er each fair sleeping brow;
She had each folded flower [1] in sight—
Where are those dreamers now?
One, ’midst the forests of the West [2] ,
By a dark stream is laid—
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar shade.
The sea, the blue lone sea, hath one—
He lies where pearls lie deep;
He was the loved of all, yet none
O’er his low bed may weep.
One sleeps where southern vines [3] are drest
Above the Noble slain;
He wrapped his colours round his breast
On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one—o’er her the myrtle [4] showers
Its leaves, by soft winds fanned;
She faded ‘midst Italian flowers—
The last of that bright band.
And parted thus they rest, who played
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they prayed
Around one parent knee;
They that with smiles lit up the hall,
And cheered with song the hearth—
Alas for love, if thou weft all,
And naught beyond, O Earth!
—MRS . HEMANS
* * *
[1] folded flower: The sleeping child compared to a flower which closes at eventide.
[2] the West: Refers to America.
[3] southern vines: Vineyards of Spain.
[4] myrtle: A beautiful evergreen shrub that grows in the South of Europe.
