---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Lambourne, Alfred
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 8
number: 2
published: 1904-12
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'Alfred Lambourne, "The Lost Bride: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 2 (December 1904): 127.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0802unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0802unse
start_page: 127
end_page: 127
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-12)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0802unse
  publication_year: 1904
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# The Lost Bride: A Poem

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;

           .4   SHORT WAY WITH THE REORGANIZERS.                              127

lines,what need is there to discuss succession in the presidency, or
polygamy? The latter has been a dead issue for some fourteen
years, yet the Reorganizers keep whipping the dead horse, and by
loud talk try to make not only the world, but Latter-day Saints,
even here in Utah, believe that the corpse            is   a live and kicking
one.     Their temerity in mis-stating the true facts on this subject
shows their confidence        in the   patient endurance of the libertyloving people of Zion.         No   other people would tamely submit to
facts connected with their fathers and mothers and their own selves
being perverted, as they are, day after day on the street corners
of their own cities. I fear, at times, that some one in a crowd

may become so indignant at the slanderous statements made by
these preachers of the gospel of controversy, as to be tempted to
interrupt their meetings.           As it is, we pass by on the other side,
remembering that Jesus hath said: "That every idle word that
men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of
judgment."   May our Reorganized friends repent, and turn from
their ways, before they are forced to hear the words,                "Too   late."
    Provo, Utah.

                             THE LOST BRIDE.
                              (A Sonnet for Music.)

                The wan sun fell across the restless deep;
                  Upon the rocks and sand the tide made moan
                The sea-bird, winging from the cavemed steep,
                  Had left me standing on the beach alone.
                The ancient cypress, in the darkened wood,
                  Its pendent moss and branches gently swayed;
                The night winds crept around me as I stood,
                  And through the land a low, sweet music made.
                But in my heart was sadder passion still,
                  Than any voiced by wind or tree or tide;
                All thoughts of anguish did my bosom fill,
                  In that dark hour you should have been my bride:
                Salt, bitter tears were mine instead of thee,
                     my lost love, who sleeps beneath the sea!
                                                   Alfred Lambourne.
  Salt   Lake City, Utah.