LINES BY A YOUNG LADY BORN BLIND.
1. If this delicious, grateful flower,
Which blows but for a little hour,
Should to the sight so lovely be,
As from its fragrance seems to me,
A sigh must then its color show,
For that's the softest joy I know;
And sure the rose is like a sigh,
Born just to soothe, and then-to die.
2. My father, when our fortune smiled,
With jewels decked his cycless child;
Their glittering worth the world might see,
But, ah! they had no charms for me;
A trickling tear bedewed my arm,——
I felt it,--and my heart was warm;
And sure to me the gem most dear,
Was a kind father's pitying tear.
Bird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o'er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place,
O, to abide in the desert with thee!
Wild is thy lay and loud,
Far in the downy cloud,
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth,
Where on thy dewy wing--
Where art thou journeying?
Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
O'er moor and mountain green,
O'er the red streamer that heralds the day,
Over the cloudlet dim,
Over the rainbow's rim,
Musical cherub, soar, singing away!
Then, when the gloaming comes,
Low in the heather blooms,
Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place,
C. to abide in the desert with thee!
EPITHALAMIUM.*
1. I saw two clouds at morning, Tinged with the rising sun;
And in the dawn they floated on,
And mingled into one;
I thought that morning cloud was blest,
It moved so sweetly to the west.
I saw two Summer currents,
Flow smoothly to their meeting,
And join their course with silent force,
In peace each other greeting;
Calm was their course through banks of green,
While dimpling eddies played between.
8. Such be your gentle motion,
Till life's last pulse shall beat,
Like Summer's beam, and Summer's stream,
Float on, in joy, to meet
A calmer sea, where storms shall cease—
A purer sky, where all is peace.
* EP-I-THA-LA -MI-UM, a nuptial song or poem.
Had part in this fair maid, now Heaven hath all;
And all the better is it for the maid;
Your part in her you could not keep from death,
But Heaven keeps His part in eternal life.
The most you sought was her promotion,
For 't was your Heaven, she should be advanced;
And weep ye nów, seeing she is advanced
Above the clouds, as high as heaven itself?
O! in this love, you love your child so ill,
That you run mad, seeing that she is well.
1. When last the April bloom was flinging
Sweet odors on the air of Spring,
In forest aisles thy voice was ringing,
Where thou didst with the red-bird sing:
Again the April bloom is flinging
Sweet odors on the air of Spring,
But now in Heaven thy voice is ringing,
Where thou dost with the angels sing.
2. When last the maple-bud was swelling,
When last the crocus bloomed below,
My heart to thine its love was telling;
Thy soul with mine kept ebb and flow.
Again the maple-bud is swelling,
Again the crocus blooms below;
In Heaven thy heart its love is telling,
But still our souls keep ebb and flow.
The immortal MIND, superior to his fate
Amid the outrage of external things,
Firm as the solid base of this great world,
Rests on its own foundation. Blow, ye winds!
Ye waves! ye thunders! roll your tempests on!
Shake, ye old pillars of the marble sky!
Till all its orbs and all its worlds of fire
Be loosened from their seats; yet still serene,
The unconquered mind looks down upon the wreck;
And ever stronger as the storms advance,
Firm through the closing ruin holds his way,
Where Nature calls him to the destined goal.
THE FLIGHT OF TIME.
1. Faintly flow, thou falling river,
Like a dream that dies away;
Down to ocean gliding ever
Keep thy calm unruffled way;
Time, with such a silent motion,
Floats along on wings of air,
To Eternity's dark ocean,
Burying all its treasures there.
2. Roses bloom, and then they wither,
Cheeks are bright, then fade and die,
Shapes of light are wafted hither,
Then, like visions, hurry by:
Quick as clouds at evening driven
O'er the many-colored west,
Years are bearing us to Heaven,
Home of happiness and rest
-a few years must—
Repose us in the silent dust.
The voice of nature loudly cries,
And many a message from the skies,
That something in us never dies ;
That on this frail, uncertain state,
Hang matters of eternal weight;
That future life in worlds unknown
Must take its hue from this alone;
Whether as heavenly glory bright,
Or dark as misery's woeful night.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE AND WISDOM.
Knowledge and wisdom, far from being one,
Have oft times no connection. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom in minds attentive to their own.
Knowledge, a rude unprofitable mass,
The mere materials, with which Wisdom builds,
Till smoothed and squared and fitted to its place,
Does but encumber whom it seems to enrich.
Knowledge is proud, that he has learned so much,
Wisdom is humble, that he knows no more.
Let falsehood be a stranger to thy lips,
Shame on the policy that first began
To tamper with the heart to hide its thoughts;
And doubly shame on that inglorious tongue.
That sold its honesty, and told a lie.
|