[Page [83]]

BALLAD,

FOUNDED ON FACT.

1 ROUND youthful Henry's restless bed
2 His weeping friends and parents pressed;
3 But she who raised his languid head
4 He loved far more than all the rest.
5 Fond mutual love their bosoms fired;
6 And nearly dawned their bridal day,
7 When every hope at once expired,
8 For Henry on his death-bed lay.
[Page 84]
9 The fatal truth the sufferer read
10 In weeping Lucy's downcast eye:
11 "And must I, must I, then," he said,
12 "Ere thou art mine, my Lucy, die!
13 "No, ... deign to grant my last, last prayer;
14 'T would soothe thy lover's parting breath,
15 Wouldst thou with me to church repair,
16 Ere yet I feel the stroke of death.
17 "For trust me, love, I shall my life
18 With something like to joy resign,
19 If I but once may call thee wife,
20 And, dying, claim and hail thee mine."
[Page 85]
21 He ceased: and Lucy checked the thought
22 That he might at the altar die, ....
23 The prayer with such true love was fraught,
24 How could she such a prayer deny?
25 They reached the church .... her cheek was wan
26 With chilling fears of coming woe ....
27 But triumph when the rites began
28 Lent Henry's cheek a flattering glow.
29 The nuptial knot was scarcely tied,
30 When Henry's eye strange lustre fired,
31 "She's mine! she's mine!" he faltering cried,
32 And in that throb of joy expired.

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Title (in Source Edition): BALLAD, FOUNDED ON FACT.
Themes:
Genres: ballad metre; lyric

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Opie, Amelia Alderson, 1769-1853. The Warrior's Return, and Other Poems. By Mrs. Opie. 2d. ed. London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster-row, 1808, pp. [83]-85.  (Page images digitized by Library of Congress Research Institute.)

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