BELIEVE ME, IF ALL THOSE ENDEARING YOUNG CHARMS. BELIEVE me, if all those endearing young charms,

Which I gaze on so fondly to-day, Were to change by to-morrow, and fleet in my arms,

Like fairy-gifts fading away, Thou wouldst still be adored, as this moment thou art,

Let thy loveliness fade as it will, And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart

Would entwine itself verdantly still.

It is not while beauty and youth are thine own,

And thy cheeks unprofaned by a tear, That the fervor and faith of a soul can

be known,

To which time will but make thee more dear;

No, the heart that has truly loved never forgets,

But as truly loves on to the close, As the sun-flower turns on her god, when he sets,

The same look which she turned when he rose.

DRINK TO HER. DRINK to her who long Hath waked the poet's sigh, The girl who gave to song

What gold could never buy. Oh! woman's heart was made For minstrel hands alone; By other fingers played,

It yields not half the tone. Then here's to her who long Hath waked the poet's sigh, The girl who gave to song

What gold could never buy.

At Beauty's door of glass

Where Wealth and Wit once stood, They asked her, "which might pass?" She answered, "he who could." With golden key Wealth thought

Undistinguished they live, if they

shame not their sires;

And the torch, that would light them

through dignity's way,

Must be caught from the pile where their country expires.

Then blame not the bard, if in pleasure's soft dream

He should try to forget what he never can heal;

Oh! give but a hope-let a vista but gleam

Through the gloom of his country, and mark how he'll feel!

Every passion it nursed, every bliss it adored,

Of milder, calmer beam, But there's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream:

No, there's nothing half so sweet in life As love's young dream.

soar,

Though the bard to purer fame may When wild youth's past; Though he wins the wise, who frowned before,

To smile at last;

He'll never meet

A joy so sweet,

In all his noon of fame,

As when first he sung to woman's ear His soul-felt flame,