Chapter 3 Hester
When maidens such as Hester die
Their place ye may not well supply,
Though ye among a thousand try
With vain endeavor.
A month or more hath she been dead,
Yet cannot I by force be led
To think upon the wormy bed
And her together.
A springy motion in her gait,
A rising step, did indicate
Of pride and joy no common rate,
That flushed her spirit:
I know not by what name besides
I shall it call: if twas not pride,
It was a joy to that allied,
She did inherit.
Her parents held the Quaker rule,
Which doth the human feeling cool;
But she was traind in Natures school;
Nature had blest her.
A waking eye, a prying mind;
A heart that stirs, is hard to bind;
A hawks keen sight ye cannot blind;
Ye could not Hester.
My sprightly neighbour! gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,
Shall we not meet, as heretofore,
Some summer morning;
When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that would not go away,
A sweet forecast?