Page 58 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

Was gone, and he turned to his beautiful bride
With a radiant smile and a glance of pride :
And his eye was bright,
And his step was light,
A s would beseem with her by his side.
Oh, his smile is glad, and his heart is brave !
What cares he for the dead on the gr;tve?
The faded shawl, and faded gown,
And unsmoothed hair or golden brown?

W hy should the face on the tombstone gray
Trouble him on his wedding-day ?
Forgotten words that were long since spoken,
Thoughts of vows that were made to be broken?
Fling them away !
Be joyous and gay!
Death will never a secret betray.
Quaff the red wine, the glasses ring ;

Drink I till the gloomy thoughts take wing;
Drink and be merry, merry and glad I
With a bride so lovely, who would be sad ?

H ark ! the wedding bells are ringing,
Over the hills their echoes flinging ;

Carried away on the morning breeze
Over the moorland, over the leas,
Riding back on the zephyr’s wing,
Joyously, merrily, on they ring!
But she will not wake, her sleep is deep,
And death can ever a secret keep.
Ah ! thy smile may be glad and thy heart may be brave,
And the secrct be kept betwixt thee and the grave ;
But shouldst thou forget it for one short day,
In the gloom of night, from the tombstone gray,
W ill come the sound of a wailing cry—