XV.

Then be to us, O dear, lost child !
With beam of love,

A star, death's uncongenial wild
Smiling above!

Soon, soon, thy little feet have trode
The skyward path, the seraph's road,
That led thee back from man to God,
Casa Wappy!

XVI.

Yet, 'tis sweet balm to our despair,

Fond, fairest boy,

That Heaven is God's, and thou art there,
With Him in joy!

There past are death and all its woes,
There beauty's stream for ever flows,

And pleasure's day no sunset knows,

Casa Wappy!

XVII.

Farewell, then for a while, farewell

Pride of my heart!

It cannot be that long we dwell,

Thus torn apart :

Time's shadows like the shuttle flee ;
And, dark howe'er life's night may be,

Beyond the grave I'll meet with thee,
Casa Wappy!

March 1838.

WEE WILLIE.

I.

FARE-THEE-WELL, our last and fairest,
Dear wee Willie, fare-thee-well!
God, who lent thee, hath recall'd thee
Back, with Him and His to dwell :
Fifteen moons their silver lustre
Only o'er thy brow had shed,
When thy spirit join'd the seraphs,
And thy dust the dead.

II.

Like a sunbeam, thro' our dwelling Shone thy presence, bright and calm; Thou didst add a zest to pleasure,

To our sorrows thou wert balm ;Brighter beam'd thine eyes than summer; And thy first attempt at speech Thrill'd our heartstrings with a rapture Music ne'er could reach.

III.

As we gazed upon thee sleeping,

With thy fine fair locks outspread, Thou didst seem a little angel,

Who to earth from Heaven had stray'd; And, entranced, we watch'd the vision, Half in hope, and half affright, Lest what we deem'd ours, and earthly, Should dissolve in light.

IV.

Snows o'ermantled hill and valley,
Sullen clouds begrimed the sky,
When the first drear doubt oppress'd us,
That our child was doom'd to die.
Through each long night-watch, the taper
Show'd the hectic of his cheek

;

And each anxious dawn beheld him

More worn out and weak.

V.

Oh, the doubts, the fears, the anguish
Of a parent's brooding heart,
When despair is hovering round it,

And yet hope will scarce depart-
When each transient flush of fever

Omens health's returning light, Only to involve the watchers

'Mid intenser night!

VI.

'Twas even then Destruction's angel
Shook his pinions o'er our path,
Seized the rosiest of our household,

And struck Charlie down in death!
Desolation

Fearful, awful!

On our lintel set his sign;

And we turn'd from his quick death-scene,

Willie, round to thine!

VII.

Like the shot-star in blue midnight,
Like the rainbow, ray by ray,
Thou wert waning as we watch'd thee,
Loveliest, in thy last decay!

As a zephyr, so serenely

Came and went thy last, low breath, That we paused, and ask'd our spiritsIs it so ? Can this be death?

VIII.

As the beams of Spring's first morning
Through the silent chamber play'd,
Lifeless, in my arms I raised thee,

And in thy small coffin laid ;
Ere the day-star with the darkness
Nine times had triumphant striven,
In one grave had met your ashes,
your souls in Heaven!

And

IX.

Five were ye, the beauteous blossoms
Of our hopes, our hearts, our hearth;
Two asleep lie buried under-

Three for us yet gladden earth.
Thee, our hyacinth, gay Charlie-
Willie, thee our snow-drop pure--
Back to us shall second spring-time

Never more allure!

X.

Yet while thinking, oh! our lost ones,
Of how dear ye were to us,

Why should dreams of doubt and darkness
Haunt our troubled spirits thus ?
Why across the cold dim churchyard

Flit our visions of despair?
Seated on the tomb, Faith's angel

Says, "Ye are not there!"

XI.

Where, then, are ye? With the Saviour Blest, for ever blest, are ye,

'Mid the sinless, little children,

Who have heard his "Come to me!"

'Yond the shades of death's dark valley Now ye lean upon his breast,

Where the wicked dare not enter,

And the weary rest.