Henry Kendall

Poems and Songs (1862). In the Depths of a Forest

In the depths of a Forest secluded and wild,
 The night voices whisper in passionate numbers;
And I'm leaning again, as I did when a child,
 O'er the grave where my father so quietly slumbers.

The years have rolled by with a thundering sound
 But I knew, O ye woodlands, affection would know it,
And the spot which I stand on is sanctified ground
 By the love that I bear to him sleeping below it.

Oh! well may the winds with a saddening moan
 Go fitfully over the branches so dreary;
And well may I kneel by the time-shattered stone,
 And rejoice that a rest has been found for the weary.