MARY P. SHINDLER
Reading edition
Mrs. Mary Palmer Shindler, poet and novelist, was born at Beaufort, South Carolina, February 15, 1810. She was the daughter of Dr. Benjamin M. Palmer, the celebrated Presbyterian preacher of New Orleans. She was educated in Charleston by the daughter of Dr. David Ramsey, the early historian of South Carolina. Her education was completed in the schools of Connecticut and New Jersey. In 1835 Miss Palmer was married to Charles E. Dana of New York; and in 1848 to Rev. Robert D. Shindler, an Episcopal clergyman. Two years after this marriage they removed to Maryland, and then to Shelbyville, Kentucky, where Dr. Shindler held a professorship in Shelby College. Shelbyville was Mrs. Shindler's home henceforth, save for short sojourns in other states, and in that town she died about 1880. She was the author of The Southern Harp (1840); The Northern Harp (1841); The Parted Family and Other Poems (1842); The Temperance Lyre (1842); Charles Morton, or the Young Patriot (1843); The Young Sailor (1844); Forecastle Tour (1844); and, Letters to Relatives and Friends on the Trinity (1845). Several of Mrs. Shindler's lyrics are well known.
Bibliography. Appletons' Cyclopaedia of American Biography (New York, 1888, v. v); The Writers of South Carolina, by George A. Wauchope (Columbia, South Carolina, 1910).
THE FADED FLOWER
[From The Parted Family and Other Poems (1842)]
I have seen a fragrant flower All impearled with morning dew; I have plucked it from the bower, Where in loveliness it grew. Oh, 'twas sweet, when gayly vying With the garden's richest bloom; But when faded, withered, dying, Sweeter far its choice perfume. So the heart, when crushed by sorrow, Sends its richest streams abroad, While it learns sweet balm to borrow From the uplifted hand of God. Not in its sunny days of gladness Will the heart be fixed on Heaven; When 'tis wounded, clothed in sadness, Oft its richest love is given.