Poem by Lucretia Maria Davidson

Kindar Burial Service, Versified

We commend our brother to thee, oh earth!
To thee he returns, from thee was his birth!
Of thee was he form'd, he was nourish'd by thee;
Take the body, oh earth! the spirit is free.

Oh air! he once breath'd thee, thro' thee he surviv'd,
And in thee, and with thee, his pure spirit liv'd;
That spirit hath fled, and we yield him to thee;
His ashes be spread, like his soul, far and free.

Oh fire! we commit his dear reliques to thee,
Thou emblem of purity, spotless and free;
May his soul, like thy flames, bright and burning arise,
To its mansion of bliss, in the star-spangled skies.

Oh water! receive him; without thy kind aid
He had parch'd 'neath the sunbeams or mourn'd in the shade;
Then take of his body the share which is thine,
For the spirit hath fled from its mouldering shrine.

1. The Wee Flower of the Heather
2. On the Death of the Beautiful Mrs.--
3. To a Friend, Whom I Had Not Seen Since My Childhood
4. Cupid’s Bower
5. On an Æolian Harp

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