THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 59 
**O, mother, what is gone is gone ! 
What’s lost forever lorn ; 
Death, death alone can comfort me ; 
O had I ne’er been born ! 
“*O break, my heart, O break at once ! 
Drink my life-blood Despair ! 
No joy remains on earth for me, 
For me in heaven no share.” 
<< O enter not in judgment, Lord !” 
The pious mother prays ; 
‘‘Tmpute not guilt to thy frail child ! 
She knows not what she says. 
‘© O say thy pater noster child ! 
O turn to God and grace ! 
His will that turned thy bliss to bale, 
Can change thy bale to bliss.” 
“*O mother, mother, what is bliss ? 
O mother, what is bale ? 
My William’s love was heaven on earth, 
Without it earth is hell. 
““ Why should I pray to ruthless Heaven, 
Since my love, William, ’s slain ? 
I only pray’d for William’s sake, 
And all my prayers were vain.” 
** O take the sacrament, my child, 
And check those tears that flow ; 
By resignation’s humble prayer, 
O hallow’d be thy woe !” 
‘* No sacrament can quench this fire, 
Or slake this scorching pain, 
No sacrament can bid the dead 
Arise and live again. 
“© break, my heart, O break at once ! 
Be thou my god, Despair ! 
Heaven’s heaviest blow has fallen on me, 
And vain each fruitless prayer.” 
‘“« O enter not in judgment, Lord, 
With thy frail child of clay ! 
She knows not what her tongue has spoke 
Impute it not, I pray ! 
‘“‘ Forbear, my child, this desperate woe, 
And turn to God and grace ; 
Well can devotion’s heavenly glow 
Convert thy bale to bliss.” 
“OQ mother, mother, what is bliss ? 
O mother, what is bale ? 
Without my William what were heaven ? 
Or with him what were hell ?” 
