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Title: Madam Williams [in Memoriam]
Author: Lydia H. Sigourney [
More Titles by Sigourney]
Madam Williams,
Widow of the late EZEKIEL WILLIAMS, Esq., and Daughter of Chief
Justice Oliver Ellsworth, died at Hartford, February 28th, 1860,
aged 87.
She was a link that bound us to the past,--
To the great days of Washington, when men
Loving their country better than themselves
Show'd to the world what patriot virtue meant.
She on the knee of her majestic sire
Drew to her listening heart when life was new
Those principles that made his honored name
Synonymous with wisdom, and the might
Of holy truth.
So when in woman's sphere
She took her post of duty, still in all
The delicate proprieties of life,
The inner sanctities of household weal,
In social elegance, and in the deeds
That christian pity to the poor extends,
She was our model; and we saw in her
The perfect lady of the olden time.
Thus on the pleasant hill-top where she dwelt
In her green-terraced home, o'ercanopied
By graceful elm, mid evergreens and flowers,
The years stole over her, and slowly wrote
Their more than fourscore on her faded scroll,
While the kind care of unexhausted love
Guarded her long decline.
And now she sleeps
Where thro' the riven snows, the quickening turf
Gives emblem of the never-ending Spring,
That wraps the accepted soul in robes of joy.
[The end]
Lydia Howard Sigourney's poem: Madam Williams [in Memoriam]
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