Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

The sun, the moon, the stars, the sea,

Methinks thou smil'st before me All- to the wall-flower and wild

now,

With glance of stealth;

The hair thrown back from thy full brow

In buoyant health;

I see thine eyes' deep violet light, Thy dimpled cheek carnationed

bright,

[blocks in formation]

Thy clasping arms so round and It doth not own, whate'er may seem,

white,

[blocks in formation]

An inward birth;

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

LOVE OF COUNTRY AND OF HOME.

THERE is a land, of every land the pride, Beloved by heaven, o'er all the world beside;

Where brighter suns dispense serener light,

And milder moons emparadise the night:

A land of beauty, virtue, valor, truth, Time-tutored age and love-exalted youth:

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Happy when her welfare calls,
He who conquers, he who falls.
Deeper, deeper, let us toil
In the mines of knowledge:
Nature's wealth and learning's spoil
Win from school and college;
Delve we there for richer gems
Than the stars of diadems.

Onward, onward may we press
Through the path of duty;
Virtue is true happiness,

Excellence, true beauty.
Make we then a heaven of earth.
Minds are of celestial birth;

Closer, closer let us knit

Hearts and hands together, Where our fireside comforts sit

In the wildest weather;

Oh! they wander wide who roam,
For the joys of life, from home.

FRIEND AFTER FRIEND de-
PARTS.

FRIEND after friend departs;
Who hath not lost a friend?
There is no union here of hearts
That finds not here an end:

Were this frail world our final rest,
Living or dying, none were blest.

Beyond this flight of time

Beyond the reign of death, There surely is some blessed clime Where life is not a breath; Nor life's affections transient fire, Whose sparks fly upward and expire. There is a world above

Where parting is unknown:
A long eternity of love,

Formed for the good alone:
And faith beholds the dying, here,
Translated to that glorious sphere!

Thus star by star declines,

Till all are past away,

As morning high and higher shines,
To pure and perfect day;
Nor sink those stars in empty night,
But hide themselves in heaven's own

light.

[blocks in formation]

Till fast declining, one by one,
The sweetnesses of love are gone,
And hearts, so lately mingled, seem

That smiling left the mountain's brow,

As though its waters ne'er could

sever,

Yet e'er it reached the plain below,

Breaks into floods that part forever.

O you, that have the charge of love, Keep him in rosy bondage bound! As in the fields of bliss above

He sits, with flowerets fettered round; Loose not a tie that round him clings, Nor ever let him use his wings For even an hour, a minute's flight Will rob the plumes of half their light.

Like that celestial bird,-whose nest Is found beneath far eastern skies, Whose wings, though radiant when at rest,

Lose all their glory when he flies.

[From Lalla Rookh.] RECOGNITION OF A CONGENIAL SPIRIT.

OH! there are looks and tones that dart

Like broken clouds,- or like the An instant sunshine through the

stream,

heart,

« AnteriorContinuar »