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Being as pure as the virgin-eyed Truth,

Maiden whose days like a summer breeze flows, Dost thou e'er think, mid the rapture of youth,

"Ah! there are some that are weeping and low; Some on whom beauty smiled never at all;

Some to whom health is, alas! but a name ; Some to whom life is bitter as gall,

Fickle in hopes, and uncertain in aim;

Some who must mourn o'er youth's premature blight;
Some who must languish in sorrow and pain,
Yearning for daylight and panting for night,
Seeking for rest and relief, but in vain;:
Some on whose lips never joy wrought a smile,
Strangers to star-eyed laughter and mirth ;
Some who are fainting from anguish and toil;
Gazing eye heavenward, weary of earth!"
Fairest of earthborn, how calm is thy day,.
Glowing and cloudless thy sun-glory shines,
Flowers spring about thee and brighten thy way,
Hope evergreen round thy virgin heart twines.
Friends press around thee with greetings and smiles;
Hands clasp thy arm and full eyes on thee shine;
Love at thy feet pours the wealth of his spoils;
Souls that are noble thine image enshrine.
Hearts, faithful hearts, beating over the foam,
Panting and love-lit await thy return;

Ever toward thee, abroad or at home,

Dreaming eyes languish and fond bosoms yearn.

Maid, for whom genius sparkles with song,

Music bursts out with its loftiest thrill,

Dost thou ere think, mid the mirth of the throng,
"Ah! there are some that are friendless and still;
Some who have bosoms as earnest and free;
Some who have feelings as keen as thine own,
Yearning for friendship and fond sympathy,
Asking for bread and receiving a stone.
Some who of confidence know not the bliss,
Know not how trusting the spirit expands,
Know not, alas! what a bosom friend is;

Feel not the thrill of the clasping of hands.
Some on whose toiling no voice's sweet tone

Suddenly falls, or the beam of an eye;
Some whom the proud, cruel world will not own,
Passing in silence insultingly by !"

Maiden! the dreaming when hushed is the sound,
Vanished the pomp and the gay pageantry,
When on thy finger thou circlest round

Love's shining token, he gave unto thee;
When in the trust of the moon-lustred night
Wakes in thy bosom the rapture and glow,
Wells from those soul-eyes a chastened love-light,
Looking on days of bright summers ago!
Days when he knelt for thy love and was silent;
Sunsets beglowed with hand-clasp and vow;
Times when a heart beat against thy pure breast,

Lips dropped Affection's chaste seal on thy brow! When those long missives come over the wave,

Tender, impassioned, persuasive to theeOft hast thou pictured him, noble and brave,

Dream'st of the hopes in the future that be

Dost thou e'er think, mid the dream of thy joy,
"Ah! there are some who are loveless and lone ;
Some who ne'er basked in the light of an eye,

Ne'er heard those fond words, 'I love thee, my own ;' Some who would give all the world for the blissGive all its wealth for the love of a heart; Feel for one moment the thrill of a kiss,

Know the emotions Love's breathings impart !
Some with hearts weeping and eyes slumberless
Yearning in vain its endearments to prove ;
Some who could die did they only possess

One little heart in the wide world to love."
Ah! as I sit here mid longings and tears,
Brooding o'er dreams that are faded and gone,
Rise up before me the mouldering years
When thou wast with us, ethereal one!
Angel-like moving about 'mongst us here,

Kindly and pure as the empress of night,
When e'en my dreary and desolate sphere

Caught from thy presence a glimmer of light. Ah, thou wert dear to us! dear as our hearts; Dear as our honour-our lives in those days. Ah! but as transient as joyous thy stay,

Fleeting like all things of earth that are bright, Uprose the white sails and bore thee away

Far from the reach of our mist-burdened sight. Grieved hearts and wan eyes wept sadly behind,

Prayer-freighted breezes soon wafted thee o'er, Love-sighs to meet thee came borne on the wind,

Kindred forms welcomed thee back to their shore.

Time hurried on in its frigid unrest,

Passed without leaving a trace on thy brow;

Months sped away-joyous months! thou wert blessed,
Happy and blithe as the Peri wert thou-
Months that to me brought sorrow and blight,

Breathed but affliction's soul-writhing breath

Years! so they seemed, when I groped mid the night,
Passed through the vale of the shadows of death-
Ages! when up from my heart, thy own eyes
Looking so tender, so hopeful, so glad,
Pointing me up to the rest of the skies,

Was the one lone consolation I had.

Once more the white sails uprose and you came;
Once more I saw you, unchanged by the lapse;
Gay as of yore, all your beauty the same,

Ripened and deepened a little perhaps.
Once more your fingers swept over the keys,
Gushed forth a quivering volume of sound,
Sailed my charmed soul on its billowy seas—
Sailed, and was lost in the listening profound.
And as I gazed on thy rapt dreamy face,

Wildly drank in each voluptuous strain,

I could have thought that the past dreamy space
Was but a feverish wraith of the brain-
Dreamed that that season of pain and alloy

Was but a phantom and never had been ;
Fancied I sat, as on Sabbaths gone by,

Listening entranced with no shadow between. Ah! but the song and music was hushed,

Vanished the singer in sunlight away;

Over my being the black torrent rushed,

All the more dark for the brief glimpse of day. Ah! there are some without compass or chart,

Tossing and toiling-the sport of the wave; Some who meet friends but to sorrow and part,

Some who could welcome the rest of the grave. Some to whom Hope is the wrecker's false gleamJoy but the city-world's far-distant hum—

Love but a beautiful, sorrowful dream—
Life but a desert: alas! there are some.

REST IN THE EVENTIDE.

SAT beside the window, sad and still,
The gauzy curtains round about me fell,
I looked away o'er misty vale and hill,

O'er silent field and forest, rock and dell;
Night's mystic spirit held my soul in thrall,
A shadowy presence filled the azure void,
A solemn quietude pervaded all,

And there was-rest

Rest in the eventide.

I wiped my tear-stained eyes, and gazed and gazed;
A torrent-gush of moonlight burst around;
Night's solemn brow grew bright, the river blazed,
And floods of glory filled the vast profound;
The village roofs, the church, the tombs, the spire,
The landscape stretching out on every side,

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