Poems (Odom)/Kate Nailer

KATE NAILER.

I braided her shining tresses
Away from her stainless brow;
And crowned her with bridal roses
As white as unfallen snow.
With the chrism of love upon her
She stood in the chamber there,
As pure as the veil that softened
The gleam of her golden hair.

Like some proud ungathered lily,
So fair in her girlish grace;
With not one warm tint flushing
Her passionless, beautiful face.
We looked on her radiant whiteness
Untinged by a rosy breath;
And talked of her marble beauty—
Alas! God named it death.

We little thought as she whispered
The tremulous bridal vow,
'T was the pure white light of heaven
We saw on her sinless brow.
A bright, brief season of gladness
Swept over the bridegroom and bride,
Then Kate and her brave young lover
Slept silently side by side.

To-day as I stand in her chamber
And draw back the curtain of years,
The floods of the past break upon me
And deluge my spirit with tears.
I turn from the sorrowful picture,
The curtain falls back in its place,
And closely beside me is breaking
Her smile on a frank, boyish face.

"Kate's smile, with the eyes of his father,"
How often 't is lovingly said,
With a kiss for the boy they have left us
And tenderest thoughts of the dead.
Asleep in their dreamless resting—
Twin graves on the green hillside—
They lie in their clay-cold chamber,
The bridegroom and beautiful bride.