Page images
PDF
EPUB

And may our happy portion be,
To join thee in the realms above,
The glory of our Lord to see,

And sing his everlasting love.

Kelly.

TO MY SOUL.

WRITTEN IN SICKNESS.

Be patient yet, my soul, thou hast not long beneath accumulated wrong :

Το

groan

Soon, very soon, I trust, the galling yoke
That clogs thee now, for ever shall be broke.
It comes, thy freedom comes; from grief arise,
Prepare, exulting, for thy native skies;
Soon, very soon, this world's unholy dreams,
Its poor possessors, and their trifling schemes
Shall worthless seem to thee, as leaves embrowned
That blasts autumnal scatter o'er the ground.
O then, from all of earthly taint made free,
What scenes unthought thy blessed eyes may see!
Perhaps commissioned thou shalt bend thy flight,
Where worlds and suns roll far from mortal sight,

And, hailed by beings pure, who know no care,
Thy gracious Master's high behests declare:
Or raptured bend, amid the seraph band,
That round the throne of light attending stand,
To golden harps their dulcet voices raise,
And ceaseless hymn the great Creator's praise.
O while such hopes await, can aught on earth,
My conscious soul, to one sad sigh give birth?
Be far each anxious thought, no more repine,
Soon shall the crown of Amaranth be thine.

FAREWELL.

Farewell! for I have schooled my

heart

At last to say farewell to thee! Now I can bear to look on death,—

Its bitterness is past for me.

The faded brow, the pallid lip,

Proclaim what soon my fate will be;

And welcome is their tale of death,

For I have said farewell to thee!

Davenport.

When first we met, I saw thee all
A girl's imagining could feign;
I did not dream of loving thee,
Still less of being loved again.

I felt it not,

till round my heart

Link after link the chain was wove;

Then burst at once upon my brain

The maddening thought-I love! I love!

We then were parting, others wept,
But I let not one tear drop fall;
And when each kind Farewell was said,
Mine was the coldest of them all.

But mine the ear that strained to hear
Thy latest step; and mine the eye
That watched thy distant shape, when none
But me its shadow could descry.

And when the circle in its mirth

Had quite forgot Farewell and Thee,
I went to my own room, and wept
The tears I would not let thee see.

400394

And time passed on; but not with time
Did thoughts of thee and thine depart;
The lesson of forgetfulness

Was what I could not teach my heart.

We met again, and women's pride
Nerved me to what I had to bear ;
I would not, though my heart had broke,
Have let thee find thine image there.

I felt thine eyes gazing on mine;
I felt my hand within thine hold;
I heard my name breathed by thy voice,
And I was calm, and I was cold.

I knew the day, the very hour,

That

you were wed, and heard your vow ;

I heard the wedding bells-O God!

Mine ear rings with them even now!

I

may not say that

you were false,

I never had one vow from thee;

But I have often seen thine eye

Look as it loved to look on me.

And when you spoke to me, your voice
Would always take a softer tone;
And surely that last night your cheek
Was almost pallid as my own.

But this is worse than vain Farewell!
Of heaven now I only crave

For thee all of life's happiness,

And for myself an early grave!

Miss L. E. Landon.

DEATH OF A CHRISTIAN.

Calm on the bosom of thy God,

Fair spirit! rest thee now!

Ere while with ours thy footsteps trod,
His seal was on thy brow.

Dust to its narrow house beneath!

Soul to its place on high!

They that have seen thy look in death,

No more may fear to die.

Mrs Hemans.

« PreviousContinue »