Of quiet joy and deep contented love.
But when our harsh and marriage-slighting edict
Decreed their separation, and the pair,
Reluctantly divorced, were fain to nurse
Their unquench'd loves in solitary cages,
And forced disunion both of bed and board,
Then what a sudden gush of pent-up song
Burst from the widower's throat; as tho' the passion,
Kindled by nature in his fiery heart,

And finding, till that time, congenial vent

In interchange of amorous sympathies

With his own chosen mate, was now constrain'd
To seek some new, unwonted utterance,

Best found in song. Herein, methinks, the bird
Is an apt emblem of his wayward donor,
Who, for six blissful years, link'd to thy side
In loving and most blest companionship,
Hath, all that time, lock'd up his vaunted store
Of thought poetic, breathing scarce a note
Of glad or mournful, light or serious song,
Not ode sublime, nor melting elegy,
Nor lofty sounding epic. Why was this?
Why, but because the wild and passionate feelings,
The dim mysterious instincts of his nature,
The struggling impulse of the Muse within him,
Which, in the days of his unmated youth,
Found vent in song and minstrelsy, have flow'd
Since thou wert his, in a far better channel,
Spending their once tumultuous energy
In exercises sweet of chasten'd love

And mild endearments. Around thee have cluster'd
The tender thoughts, the rich imaginations,
The impulses and instincts, strange and strong,
The dreams and visions and wild phantasies,
Which else perhaps had wander'd unrestrain'd
Through many a devious track of poesy;
But, tamed by the strong magic of thy charms,
Have all foregone their rovings, and so mingled
Their manifold, and oft contending, currents
In one deep, tranquil, mighty stream of love.
Thus is it that, for very blessedness,

seem

My Muse hath long been silent, long forgotten
The venturous flights of her less happy days;
But now that, summon'd by imperious duty,
And, for a time, foregoing love's sweet solace
For truest Friendship's sake, I dwell apart
From thee and my sweet children-now once more
The old imaginations wake within me;
Once more the wild and long forgotten music
Of teeming thoughts and fancies floats and thrills
Through my admiring brain; once more
To walk in that bright land of fairy visions
Which is the poet's birthright, his asylum
From all the harsh and sorrowful realities
Which vex him in this dull and daylight world.
Now, like our luckless bird, I seem endow'd
With sudden and unwonted power of song;
Which, if it may attain such tuneful pitch
As erst it reach'd-such as may not disgrace
The promise of my earlier utterance,

To whom but thee, my own and only love,
Should its first notes be consecrate?

My heart
Turns fondly to thine image. O! where art thou?
How spending thy brief widowhood? what work
Of patient duty or meek love pursuing?
Haply thou watchest, with maternal fondness,
The slumbers of our children, or in calm
And serious converse with those gentle friends,
Whose presence half consoles thee for my absence,
Pliest thy busy needle, toiling hard

At some great masterpiece of seamstress skill,
Trouser or tiny shirt, or infant frock,
Or cap constructed to set off the smiles

Of dimpled babyhood; meanwhile, to lighten
The evening's toil, one reads, with placid tone,
Some volume of grave truth or pleasant fiction,
Whereto with serious and attentive ear

Well pleased thou listenest, though at times thy
thoughts,

Spite of thyself, wander away to him

Who, on his part in solitude remote,

Is wedding his fond thoughts of thee and home

To these weak, worthless numbers. Peace be with

thee,

My gentle love, whate'er thy occupation,

Where'er thy thoughts are fix'd; such peace as thou, By all the arts of wedded tenderness,

Hast breathed into this wild and wayward spirit. For thou hast been to me a guiding star,

My tutelary genius, my good angel,
The ministering spirit, by whose hand

The Giver of all good hath lavish'd on me
His choicest bounties. Thou canst never know
How much I owe thee for whate'er of good
Is mingled with this gross and selfish nature;
For what I am or may be, and no less

For that which I am not; for without thee,
And that sweet exercise of pure affections,
Those moods of sober thought and tender musing,
That calm fulfilment of unquiet hopes

And fiery longings after happiness,

Which thou alone hast yielded or couldst yield me,
I had remain'd the wild impetuous slave

Of uncontroll❜d self will, made weak and wretched
By foul perversion of the choicest gifts
Shower'd on me by all-bounteous Providence:
And if, reclaim'd from wanderings manifold,
And made partaker of a better hope
And purer aspirations, I now walk,

Though with unsteady and irresolute step,

In the straight path which leads to life eternal,
To thee, in part, I owe it. Be all praise

To Him whose grace, by means inscrutable,
Hath won us from this world of sense and sin
To prospects bright of immortality!
Therefore, O gentlest, our connubial love,
Hallow'd by strong consent of mutual faith
And kindred aspirations, hath assumed
A nobler character; for we two walk

Through this life's strange and ever varying road,
Not as chance wayfarers, ere long to part

At Death's grim hostel, but as deathless souls
Inseparably join'd, and doom'd to share
Each other's company through endless changes
Of still progressive being; and shall we,
Thus strongly bound by chains indissoluble,
Heirs of one blessed hope, leagued in pursuit
Of one immortal prize-shall we not share
Each other's joys and sorrows, hopes and fears,
In tenderest sympathy? shall we not bear
Each other's burdens, cheer each other's toils,
And, in most loving emulation, strive
Which shall do most to help the other's welfare
In this world and the next? My Margaret,
Methinks when I look back on our past years
Of wedded life, much seems to be amiss
On my part, somewhat haply e'en on thine;
For this, whatever may have been my share
In our joint list of treasons conjugal,
For rash impatience, tempers unsubdued,
And much neglect of duties manifold,

Would I now crave forgiveness, and henceforth
Resolve, by powerful help of grace divine,
To act, more perfectly, the christian husband.
Henceforth let us two live, in full discharge
Of all those gentle duties which we owe
Each to the other, as souls knit together
In bonds divine, and emblematical

Of that most holy and mysterious union