Your papa may look out for a horse,
And consult ma-I must not pay dear;
He will think it no trouble, of course,
Remembering for what you send here.
TO HIS GUARDIAN ANGEL.
SWEET angel of my natal hour!
Thou, to whose tutelary power
My infant days were given!
My bosom friend! companion dear!
For ever kind, for ever near,
While such the will of Heaven!
By thee inspired, the livelong day
Roll'd lightly on in peace and play,
Calm slumbers crown'd the night;
By thee and simple nature drawn,
Ere reason spread her glimmering dawn,
I sought and found delight.
"Twas thou, whene'er I ranged the mead,
That drew me from the poisonous weed
Of tempting purple dye;
That drew me from the fatal brake,
Where, coil'd in speckled pride, the snake
Allured my longing eye.
Ah, why so soon to reason's hand
Didst thou resign the imperial wand,
Why yield the ruling rein?
With thee are all my comforts fled,
And woes on endless woes succeed,
A dire and gloomy train!
Can Zephyr hush the surging seas,
Or whisper silence in a breeze,
When Boreas sweeps the flood? Can the soft virgin's voice restrain The midnight howlings of the plain, When lions roar for food?
So weak is reason to control,
Or soothe the tempests of the soul.
When torn by passions wild;
Though soft the sound as zephyr's wing,
That whispers tidings of the spring,
As voice of virgin mild.
Come then, resume thy guardian power,
Sweet angel of my natal hour,
To whom the charge was given!
Once more receive me to thy care,
For ever kind, for ever near,
If such the will of Heaven!
Oн, my loved harp! companion dear!
Sweet soother of my secret grief,
No more thy sounds my soul must cheer,
No more afford a soft relief.
When anxious cares my heart oppress'd,
When doubts distracting tore my soul,
The pains which heaved my swelling breast
Thy gentle sway could oft control.
Each well-remember'd practised strain,
The cheerful dance, the tender song,
Recall'd, with pensive, pleasing pain,
Some image loved and cherish'd long.
When joy sat smiling o'er my fate,
And mark'd each bright and happy day,
When partial friends around me sate,
And taught my lips the simple lay:
And when, by disappointment grieved,
I saw some darling hope o'erthrown,
Thou hast my secret pain relieved;
O'er thee
wept, unseen, alone.
Oh! must I leave thee, must we part,
Dear partner of my happiest days?
I may forget thy much-loved art,
Unused thy melody to raise;
But ne'er can memory cease to love
Those scenes where I thy charms have felt, Though I no more thy power may prove, Which taught my soften'd heart to melt.
Forced to forego with thee this spot,
Endear'd by many a tender tie,
When rosy pleasure bless'd my lot,
And sparkled in my cheated eye;
Yet still thy strings, in fancy's ear,
With soothing melody shall play;
Thy silver sounds I oft shall hear,
To pensive gloom a silent prey.
MRS. HENRY TIGHE
O BEAUTIFUL the streams
That through our valleys run, Singing and dancing in the gleams Of summer's cloudless sun!
The sweetest of them all
From its fairy banks is gone;
And the music of the waterfall
Hath left the silent stone!
Up among the mountains
In soft and mossy cell,
By the silent springs and fountains
The happy wild-flowers dwell.
The queen-rose of the wilderness
Hath wither'd in the wind,
And the shepherds see no loveliness
In the blossoms left behind.
Birds cheer our lonely groves
With many a beauteous wing;
When happy in their harmless loves
How tenderly they sing!
O'er all the rest was heard
One wild and mournful strain,
But hush'd is the voice of that hymning bird,
She ne'er must sing again!
Bright through the yew-tree's gloom
I saw a sleeping dove!
On the silence of her silvery plume
The sunlight lay in love:
The grove seem'd all her own
Round the beauty of that breast,
But the startled dove afar is flown!
Forsaken is her nest!
In yonder forest wide
A flock of wild deer lies,
Beauty breathes o'er each tender side,
And shades their peaceful eyes!
The hunter in the night
Hath singled out the doe,
In whose light the mountain flock lay bright,
Whose hue was like the snow!
A thousand stars shine forth
With pure and dewy ray,
Till by night the mountains of our north
Seem gladdening in the day.
O empty all the heaven!
Though a thousand lights be there,For clouds o'er the evening star are driven, And shorn her golden hair!
What! though the stream be dead,-
Its banks all still and dry!
It murmureth now o'er a lovelier bed
In the air groves of the sky.
What! though our prayers from death
The queen-rose might not save!
With brighter bloom and balmier breath
She springeth from the grave.
What! though our bird of light
Lie mute with plumage dim!
In heaven I see her glancing bright—
I hear her angel hymn.
What! though the dark tree smile
No more-with our dove's calm sleep,
She folds her wing on a sunny isle
In heaven's untroubled deep!
True that our beauteous doe
Hath left her still retreat,-
But purer now in heavenly snow
She lies at Jesus' feet.
O star! untimely set,
Why should we weep for thee?
The bright and dewy coronet
Is rising o'er the sea!
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