THERE never yet was flower fair in vain, Let classic poets rhyme it as they will; The seasons toil that it may blow again, And summer's heart doth feel its every ill; Nor is a true soul ever born for naught: Wherever any such hath lived and died, There hath been something for true freedom wrought,
Some bulwark levelled on the evil side:
Toil on, then, Greatness! thou art in the right, However narrow souls may call thee wrong: Be as thou wouldst be in thine own clear sight, And so thou wilt in all the world's erelong : For worldlings cannot, struggle as they may, From man's great soul one great thought hide away.
I THOUGHT our love at full, but I did err;
Joy's wreath drooped o'er mine eyes; I could not He bade me slowly ripen to my prime,
That sorrow in our happy world must be Love's deepest spokesman and interpreter ? But, as a mother feels her child first stir Under her heart, so felt I instantly Deep in my soul another bond to thee Thrill with that life we saw depart from her; O mother of our angel child! twice dear! Death knits as well as parts, and still, I wis, Her tender radince shall infold us here, Even as the light, borne up by inward bliss, Threads the void glooms of space without a fear, To print on farthest stars her pitying kiss.
And from my boughs withheld the promised fruit, Till storm and sun gave vigor to the root. Secure, O Love! secure
Thy blessing is: I have thee day and night : Thou art become my blood, my life, my light: God's mercy thou, and therefore shalt endure.
THE DAY RETURNS, MY BOSOM BURNS.
THE day returns, my bosom burns,
The blissful day we twa did meet ; Though winter wild in tempest toiled, Ne'er summer sun was half sae sweet. Than a' the pride that loads the tide, And crosses o'er the sultry line, Than kingly robes, and crowns and globes, Heaven gave me more; it made thee mine.
While day and night can bring delight, Or nature aught of pleasure give, While joys above my mind can move,
For thee and thee alone I live; When that grim foe of life below
Comes in between to make us part, The iron hand that breaks our band, It breaks my bliss, it breaks my heart.
THE POET'S BRIDAL-DAY SONG.
O, MY love's like the steadfast sun, Or streams that deepen as they run; Nor hoary hairs, nor forty years, Nor moments between sighs and tears, Nor nights of thought, nor days of pain, Nor dreams of glory dreamed in vain,
Nor mirth, nor sweetest song that flows To sober joys and soften woes, Can make my heart or fancy flee,
One moment, my sweet wife, from thee.
Even while I muse, I see thee sit In maiden bloom and matron wit; Fair, gentle as when first I sued, Ye seem, but of sedater mood; Yet my heart leaps as fond for thee As when, beneath Arbigland tree,
We stayed and wooed, and thought the moon Set on the sea an hour too soon;
Or lingered mid the falling dew, When looks were fond and words were few.
Though I see smiling at thy feet Five sons and ae fair daughter sweet, And time, and care, and birthtime woes Have dimmed thine eye and touched thy rose, To thee, and thoughts of thee, belong Whate'er charms me in tale or song. When words descend like dews, unsought, With gleams of deep, enthusiast thought, And fancy in her heaven flies free, They come, my love, they come from thee.
O, when more thought we gave, of old, To silver, than some give to gold, "T was sweet to sit and ponder o'er How we should deck our humble bower; 'T was sweet to pull, in hope, with thee, The golden fruit of fortune's tree; And sweeter still to choose and twine A garland for that brow of thine, - A song-wreath which may grace my Jean, While rivers flow, and woods grow green.
At times there come, as come there ought, Grave moments of sedater thought, When fortune frowns, nor lends our night One gleam of her inconstant light; And hope, that decks the peasant's bower, Shines like a rainbow through the shower; O then I see, while seated nigh, A mother's heart shine in thine eye, And proud resolve and purpose meek, Speak of thee more than words can speak. I think this wedded wife of mine, The best of all that 's not divine.
THE POET'S SONG TO HIS WIFE.
How many summers, love, Have I been thine? How many days, thou dove, Hast thou been mine?
I miss thee when by Gunga's stream My twilight steps I guide, But most beneath the lamp's pale beam I miss thee from my side.
I spread my books, my pencil try, The lingering noon to cheer, But miss thy kind, approving eye, Thy meek, attentive ear.
But when at morn and eve the star Beholds me on my knee,
I feel, though thou art distant far, Thy prayers ascend for me.
Then on then on! where duty leads, My course be onward still,
O'er broad Hindostan's sultry meads,
O'er bleak Almorah's hill.
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