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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FUNERAL OF A VILLAGE GIRL, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: When fair louise, half child, half woman, died
Last Line: And every bird was warbling in its nest.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brizeux, Auguste
Subject(s): Death; Funerals; Girls; Poverty; Dead, The; Burials


When fair Louise, half child, half woman, died
Like some frail blossom crushed by wind and rain,
Her bier was followed by no mourning train.
One priest alone accompanied, who sighed
Brief prayers, to which in accents soft and low,
A boy-attendant answered, full of woe.
Louise was poor: in death, our common lot,
The rich have honours which the poor have not.
A simple cross of wood, a faded pall,
These were her funeral honours, this was all;
And when the sexton from the cottage room
Conveyed her light young body to the tomb,
A bell tolled faintly, as if loath to say
So sweet a maiden had been called away.
'Twas thus she died—and thus, by hill and dale,
'Mid broom whose fragrance floated on the gale,
And past green cornfields, at the dawn of day,
The scant procession humbly took its way.
April had lately burst upon the earth
In all the glory that attends her birth,
And tenderly upon the passing bier
She snowed her blossoms and she dropped her tear.
Flowers, pink and white, arrayed the hawthorn now,
While starry buds were trembling on each bough,
Sweet scents and harmonies the air caressed
And every bird was warbling in its nest.





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