Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

42

A VISION.

Some cold in death, and some, alas! we fancied could not chill,

Living to self and to the world, to us seem colder

still;

With mournful, retrospective glance we look to brighter years,

And tread with solitary steps the thorny vale of

tears.

Then wasting pain and slow disease trace furrows on the brow,

The grasshopper, alighting down, is felt a burthen

now,

The silver cord is loosening fast its feeble, slender

hold,

The fountain's pitcher soon must break, and bowl of purer gold;

Oh were it not for that blest hope which even death endears,

How weary were our pilgrimage through this dark

vale of tears!

ANON.

TIME GROWS NOT OLD. 43

TIME GROWS NOT OLD.

TIME grows not old with length of years;
Changes he brings, but changes not;
New-born each moment he appears ;-
We run our race and are forgot.

Stars in perennial rounds return,
As from eternity they came
And to eternity might burn;-

We are not for one hour the same.

Spring flowers renew their sweet perfume,
But ere a second spring they fly ;-

Our life is longer than their bloom,

Our bloom more precious-yet we die !

Yet stars, like flowers, have but their day, And Time, like stars, shall cease to roll ;We have what never can decay,

A living and immortal soul !

Lord God! when Time shall end his flight,

Stars set, and flowers revive no more,

May we behold thy face in light,

Thy love in Christ may we adore.

ANON.

[blocks in formation]

TIME speeds away-away-away:
Another hour-another day-

Another month-another year-
Drop from us like the leaflets sere;
Drop like the life-drops from our hearts;
The rose-bloom from the cheek departs,
The tresses from the temples fall,
The eyes grow dim and strange to all.

Time speeds away-away-away:
Like torrent in a stormy day,
He undermines the stately tower,
Uproots the tree, and snaps the flower;

And sweeps from our distracted breast

The friends that loved-the friends that

bless'd;

And leaves us weeping on the shore,
To which they can return no more.
Time speeds away-away-away:
No eagle through the skies of day,
No wind along the hills, can flee
So swiftly or so smooth as he;
Like fiery steed, from stage to stage
He bears us on-from youth to age;
Then plunges in the fearful sea
Of fathomless Eternity.

ANON.

THOSE WE LOVE.

45

THOSE WE LOVE.

THOSE We love are passing from us-
Passing like the summer flowers;
Soon our dearest heart-companions
Death shall gather to his bowers.

Vainly shall we list for voices

Made by absence doubly dear;

And remorse will sternly question,

"Didst thou cherish them when here?"

O, in sorrow-in vexation

In all trials, let us prove,

By the purest, tenderest duties,
How undying is our love.

Thus life's parting pangs a solace
In sweet retrospect shall know,
And the grieved and wounded spirit
Rise, unburthened, from its woe.

MRS. SCOTT

46

INNOCENT PLEASURES.

INNOCENT PLEASURES.

FEW rightly estimate the worth

Of joys that spring and fade on earth;
They are not weeds we should despise ;
They are not fruits of Paradise ;
But wild flowers in the pilgrim's way,
That cheer, yet not protract, his stay ;
Which he dare not too fondly clasp,
Lest they should perish in his grasp,
And yet may view, and wisely love,

As proofs and types of joys above."

ANON.

BEST WISHES.

THINE be the love, refined from sense,
That seeks its object in the skies,
Draws all its warmth and brightness thence,
Its comfort, confidence, and joys;

And be thy best affections given

To Him, who loved thee first, in heaven.
And when thy Master calls thee, thine,
Thine be the crown of endless joy,
Where heaven's eternal rivers shine

Beneath a bright and cloudless sky.
Those realms, how beautiful and fair!
My friend, a blissful meeting there!

ANON.

« ForrigeFortsæt »