Shelby-Mcnairy County TN Archives News..... The Baby at Lilie May 26, 1867 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/tn/tnfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill BOGGESS william-boggess@webtv.net October 29, 2007, 2:21 am Daily Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock May 26, 1867 (copy courtesy of B Holt, 09-14- 07, transcribed by wsb, 10-28-07.)        <>----------<>----------<> from the Memphis Appeal, Albert Pike (1808-1891) editor, http://books.google.com/books?id=F5AOAAAAMAAJ... (search: "Albert Pike")       DAILY   ARKANSAS   GAZETTE Little Rock, Sunday, May 26, 1867, Column D "Our readers will recoginze in the 'nom de plume' below, that of a young lady of our city. The compliment paid her by Albert Pike, is something to be proud of:       "We must not let the following gem pass without a word of just praise. The young girl who wrote it will, if not too early spoiled by injudicious eulogy, write things that are worthy to live. Indeed, she already does so. See how every word in this poem fits in and has its weight, and the beautiful symmetry and perfect pathos of the whole:"       <>---------<>----------<>         The   Baby   at   Lilie [by Violet Lea, pen name of Fanny Green Borland.]       She sits and a vague silence keeps;             But in the church-yard of calm Lilie,             Where sun-light lieth solemn, still,       A little fair eyed baby sleeps.       'She' sitteth still with restless hands,             But 'his' are quiet as the grave :             The ivy in a matted wave,       Dreams o'er 'his' head in distant lands.       'Her' dress lies round her rich and rare,             But 'his' is merely white and straight ;             A silence coldly seems to wait,       In golden waves of baby hair.       'She' sits in silence, cold and dim;             About 'him' pass the hurrying throngs             With careless gleam or foreign songs,       And foreign lights and shadows swim.       Her hands up to her head have strayed :           "Our Lord sends pain to human breasts,             "I wonder if my baby rests       "Beneath the forgeign willow's shade?       "I could not hold him with my will---             "Alas! I knelt before a shrine,             "And watched the thing I deemed divine,       "Fade slowly into dust at Lilie"       Her eyes are hot with unshed tears;             Below the door are babbling rills,             With flowings like to baby trills ; --       "I have not heard 'his' voice for years.       "How calm are mothers by their fire,             "That cannot hear long memoties,             "Call out like shells from distant seas,       "In vague unrest and vain desire.       "Who sleep in peace the whole night long,           "While I, like one who sleeps ere death,             "Wake with quick catching of the breath,       "And a half sense of something wrong.       "Who wake to days of perfect care,             "With children cosy in their glee,             "While I start into vacancy,       "And reach for hope and clasp despair.       "I Thought at Lilie he would grow strong,             "They said he would be well in France :             "Alas ! the cry of human chance,       "And they who know not right from wrong !"       Her eyes are proud and calm and still---             No tears break up the icy deeps;             But the loved fair-eyed baby sleeps       In death's long silence there at Lilie. VIOLET LEA       Additional Comments: FANNY (Fannie) GREEN BORLAND (1848AR-1879TN): Once a highly celebrated poetess and 'belle-of-the-ball' during reconstruction days. Fanny "Fannie" Green BORLAND was second born, September 1848 in "City of Roses", Little Rock, to Solon BORLAND (1811VA-1864TX) and Mary Isabel MELBOURNE (1824LA- 1862AR), while her father served as a United States Senator, orphaned in Princeton, Dallas county, Arkansas on New Years Day 1864 by death of her father near Houston, Texas, married in 1869 at Little Rock home of Colonel & Mrs O C GRAY, birthed one known son, lost husband in the Memphis 1878 yellow fever epidemic, died of yellow fever morning of 23 August 1879 in sister's home, at "Bluff City", Memphis, burial location unknown. Named Fanny Green (spelling in Solon's will), honoring Solon's aunt Fanny (Green) GODWIN born 1785, who along with her husband George GODWIN (1878VA-1866VA) raised Solon, later his first born son Thomas, in Suffolk, Nansemond County, Virginia. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/tn/shelby/newspapers/thebabya10nw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.poppet.org/tnfiles/ File size: 5.1 Kb