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

A Prospect of Death

By Ann Eliza Bleecker (1752–1783)

DEATH! thou real friend of innocence,

Though dreadful unto shivering sense,

I feel my nature tottering o’er

Thy gloomy waves, which loudly roar:

Immense the scene, yet dark the view,

Nor Reason darts her vision through.

Virtue! supreme of earthly good,

O let thy rays illume the road;

And when dashed from the precipice,

Keep me from sinking in the seas;

Thy radiant wings then wide expand,

And bear me to celestial land.