No bitter tears for thee be shed,

Blossom of being! seen and gone!

With flowers alone we strew thy bed,

O blest departed one!

Whose all of life, a rosy ray,

Blushed into dawn, and passed away.

2 Yes! thou art fled, ere guilt had power

To stain thy cherub-soul and form,

Closed is the soft ephemeral flower

That never felt a storm!

The sunbeam’s smile, the zephyr’s breath,

All that it knew from birth to death.

3 Oh! hadst thou still on earth remained,

Vision of beauty! fair as brief!

How soon thy brightness had been stained

With passion or with grief!

Now, not a sullying breath can rise,

To dim thy glory in the skies.