"Away from whom? Alas! What ill

Press'd the warm life-hopes from her heart?

Was she not young and lovely still?

What made the frequent tear-drops start

From eyes, whose light of love could fill

My inmost soul, and bade me part

From noisy comrades in the street,

To kiss her cheek, so cold and pale,

To clasp her neck, and hold her hand,

And list the oft-repeated tale

Of woes I could not understand;

Yet felt their force, as, day by day,

I watch'd her fade from life away.

"And he, the cause of all this woe,

Her mate--the father of her child,

In dread I saw him come and go,

With many an awful oath reviled;

And from harsh word, and harsher blow,

(In answer to her pleadings mild,)

I shrank in terror, till I caught

From her meek eyes th' unwhisper'd thought--

'Bear it, my Edward, for thy mother's sake!

He cares not, in his sullen mood,

If this poor heart with anguish break.'

That look was felt, and understood

By her young son, thus school'd to bear

His wrongs, to soothe her deep despair.

"Oh, how I loath'd him!--how I scorn'd

His idiot laugh, or demon frown,--

His features bloated and deform'd;

The jests with which he sought to drown