One word at parting-in the tone
Most sweet to you, and most my own.
The simple notes I send you here, *
Though rude and wild, would still be dear,
If you but knew the trance of thought
In which my mind their murmurs caught.
"Twas one of those enchanting dreams,
That lull me oft, when Music seems
To pour the soul in sound along,
And turn its every sigh to song!
I thought of home, the according lays
Respired the breath of happier days;
Warmly in every rising note
I felt some dear remembrance float,
Till, led by Music's fairy chain,
I wander'd back to home again!
Oh! love the song, and let it oft
Live on your lip, in warble soft!
Say that it tells you, simply well,
All I have bid its murmurs tell,
Of memory's glow, of dreams that shed
The tinge of joy when joy is fled,
* A trifling attempt at musical composition accompanied this Epistle..
And all the heart's illusive hoard
Of love renew'd and friends restored!
Now, sweet, adieu-this artless air,
And a few rhymes, in transcript fair,*
Are all the gifts I yet can boast
To send you from Columbia's coast;
But when the sun, with warmer smile,
Shall light me to my destined Isle, †
You shall have many a cowslip-bell
Where Ariel slept, and many a shell
In which the gentle spirit drew
From honey flowers the morning dew!
AFTER AN INTERVAL OF ABSENCE.
CONCEAL'D within the shady wood
A mother left her sleeping child,
And flew to cull her rustic food,
The fruitage of the forest wild.
But storms upon her path-way rise,
The mother roams, astray and weeping;
* The poems which immediately follow.
+ Bermuda.
Far from the weak, appealing cries
Of him she left so sweetly sleeping.
She hopes, she fears-a light is seen,
And gentler blows the night-wind's breath ;.
Yet no-'tis gone-the storms are keen,
The baby may be chill'd to death!
Perhaps his little eyes are shaded
Dim by Death's eternal chill-
And yet, perhaps, they are not faded;
Life and love may light them still.
Thus, when my soul with parting sigh,
Hung on thy hand's bewildering touch,
And, timid, ask'd that speaking eye,
If parting pain'd thee half so much :
I thought, and, oh! forgive the thought,
For who, by eyes like thine inspired,
Could e'er resist the flattering fault
Of fancying what his soul desired?
Yes-I did think, in CARA's mind,
Though yet to CARA's mind unknown,
I left one infant wish behind,
One feeling, which I call'd my own!
Oh blest! though but in fancy blest,
How did I ask of pity's care,
To shield and strengthen in thy breast
The nursling I had cradled there.
And, many an hour beguiled by pleasure,
And many an hour of sorrow numbering,
I ne'er forgot the new-born treasure
I left within thy bosom slumbering.
Perhaps, indifference has not chill'd it,
Haply, it yet a throb may give―
Yet no-perhaps, a doubt has kill'd it!
Oh, CARA!-does the infant live?
ON THE DAWNING OF A NEW YEAR'S DAY
WHEN midnight came to close the year,
We sigh'd to think it thus should take
The hours it gave us-hours as dear
As sympathy and love could make
Their blessed moments!
Saw us, my love, more closely one!
But, CARA, when the dawn was nigh
Which came another year to shed, The smile we caught from eye to eye
Told us those moments were not fled;
Oh no!-we felt, some future sun
Should see us still more closely one!
Thus may we ever, side by side,
From happy years to happier glide;
And still, my CARA, may the sigh
We give to hours that vanish o'er us,
Be follow'd by the smiling eye
That Hope shall shed on scenes before us!
TO THE INVISIBLE GIRL.*
THEY try to persuade me, my dear little sprite, That you are not a daughter of ether and light, Nor have any concern with those fanciful forms That dance upon rainbows and ride upon storms; That, in short, you're a woman; your lip and your breast
As mortal as ever were tasted or press'd!
* This and the subsequent poem have appeared in the public prints.
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