The Princeton Union

A whisper woke the air—
A soft, light tone, and low—
Yet barbed with shame and woe;
Now, might it only perish there!
No farther go.
Ah, me! a quick and eager ear
Caught up the little moaning sound;
Another voice hath breathed it clear,
And so it wanders round,
From ear to lip, from lip to ear,
Until it reached a gentle heart.
And that—it broke!
It was the only heart it found,
The only heart 'twas meant to find
When first its accents woke;
It reached that tender heart at last,
And that it broke.
Low as it seemed to other ears,
It came a thunder crash to hers—
The fragile girl, so fair and gray.
That guileless girl, so pure and true.
'Tis said a lovely humming bird,
That in a fragrant lily lay,
And dreamed the summer morn away,
Was killed by a gun's report
Some idle boy had fired in sport!
The very sound death was!
And thus her happy heart, that beat
With love and hope, so fast and sweet.
(Shrined in its lily, too;
For who the maid that knew,
But owned the delicate, flower-like grace
Of her young form and face?)
When first that word her light heart heard,
It fluttered like a frightened bird,
Then shut its wings and sighed
And with a silent shudder—died!