'ANNIE IN THE GRAVE YARD- A POEM

ANNIE IN THE GRAVE YARD
by
Caroline Howard Gilman
(From Verses of a Life-Time, 1848)

She bounded o'er the graves,
With a buoyant step of mirth;
She bounded o'er the graves,
Where the weeping willow waves,
Life a creature not of earth.

Her hair was blown aside,
And her eyes were glittering bright;
Her hair was blown aside,
And her little hands spread wide,
With an innocent delight.

She spelt the lettered word
That registers the dead;
She spelt the lettered word,
And her busy thoughts were stirred
With pleasure as she read.

She stopped and culled a leaf
Left fluttering on a rose;
She stopped and culled a leaf,
Sweet monument of grief,
That in our church-yard grows.

She culled it with a smile -
'Twas near her sister's mound;
She culled it with a smile,
And played with it awhile,
Then scattered it around.

I did not chill her heart,
Nor turn its gush to tears;
I did not chill her heart ---
Oh, bitter drops will start
Full soon in coming years.

'A short poem from an American female poet with ties to both Massachusetts and to South Carolina is Annie In the Graveyard. The poet is Caroline Gilman. Many of the older references to quotable lines includes "She stopped and culled a leaf Left fluttering on a rose" taken from this poem. '

Sources: Caroline Howard Gilman. Wikipedia.