Contents -Volume INDEX -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

Blind Louise

By George W. Dewey (1818–1896)

SHE knew that she was growing blind—

Foresaw the dreary night

That soon would fall, without a star,

Upon her fading sight;

Yet never did she make complaint,

But prayed each day might bring

A beauty to her waning eyes,

The loveliness of Spring!

She dreaded that eclipse which might

Perpetually enclose

Sad memories of a leafless world,

A spectral realm of snows.

She’d rather that the verdure left

An evergreen to shine

Within her heart, as summer leaves

Its memory on the pine.

She had her wish: for when the sun

O’erhung his eastern towers,

And shed his benediction on

A world of May-time flowers,

We found her seated, as of old,

In her accustomed place,

A midnight in her sightless eyes,

And morn upon her face!