2/wife's birthday
When to my years your score and more were come
And first my body's eye beheld your form,
Did not I think -- and never felt before
In hundred loves -- this, this is mine own Mary?
Tis sweet to think how oft these many years
I've looked upon our body, and sure my own
And hers, my Mary's, opening to our Eyes;
And even sweet to know -- such sweetness is
For who have lived up in its scent ---[?]
That we have bound up to Eternity
By laying of ourselves part in the grave.
O look back all your years, my Mary. See
How with fine threads, by Deity self-spun,
We've walked from very birth, from years together
And here we still, this shining birthday morn,
Confront the future, hallow all the past
And bow to Heaven, and all with hand in hand
And naught to sever us! It is enough.
[Undated poem by John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)]
Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription.
Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.
When to my years your score and more were come
And first my body's eye beheld your form,
Did not I think -- and never felt before
In hundred loves -- this, this is mine own Mary?
Tis sweet to think how oft these many years
I've looked upon our body, and sure my own
And hers, my Mary's, opening to our Eyes;
And even sweet to know -- such sweetness is
For who have lived up in its scent ---[?]
That we have bound up to Eternity
By laying of ourselves part in the grave.
O look back all your years, my Mary. See
How with fine threads, by Deity self-spun,
We've walked from very birth, from years together
And here we still, this shining birthday morn,
Confront the future, hallow all the past
And bow to Heaven, and all with hand in hand
And naught to sever us! It is enough.
[Undated poem by John Milton Binckley (1821-1878)
Mary Louisa Mitchell/Michel Binckley (1838-1930)]
Original manuscript in the John Milton Binckley Papers, 1816-1943. Library of Congress Manuscript Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. This is my rough transcription.
Many thanks to William Myers for sending scanned copies of the documents from the Binckley papers, and also to Mary Davy and Sally Young for their assistance.
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