In desert wilds, in midnight gloom; Will never heed the when or where; EVENING PRAYER, AT A GIRLS' SCHOOL. "Now in thy youth, beseech of Him Who giveth, upbraiding not; That his light in thy heart become not dim, And his love be unforgot; And thy God, in the darkest of days, will be Bernard Barton. HUSH! 't is a holy hour—the quiet room Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds A faint and starry radiance, through the gloom And the sweet stillness, down on fair young heads, With all their clustering locks, untouched by care, And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night, in prayer. Gaze on 't is lovely!—Childhood's lip and cheek, Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thought— Gaze-yet what seest thou in those fair, and meek, And fragile things, as but for sunshine wrought?Thou seest what grief must nurture for the sky, What death must fashion for eternity! O! joyous creatures! that will sink to rest, 'Midst the dim folded leaves, at set of sunLift up your hearts! though yet no sorrow lies Dark in the summer-heaven of those clear eyes. Though fresh within your breasts the untroubled springs Her lot is on you-silent tears to weep, And patient smiles to wear through suffering's hour, And sumless riches, from affection's deep, To pour on broken reeds—a wasted shower! Her lot is on you—to be found untired, Watching the stars out by the bed of pain, And a true heart of hope, though hope be vain; And take the thought of this calm vesper time, With its low murmuring sounds and silvery light, DISENCHANTMENT. Do not ask me why I loved him, All my fondness, all my truth; He might not be all I dreamed him, By his actual self grew dim; That once found their life in him. From the hour by him enchanted, Once, upon myself relying, All I asked were words and thought; Many hearts to mine replying, Owned the music that I brought. Eager, spiritual, and lonely, But from that first hour I met thee, Thou who madest the fancied true? Once my wide world was ideal, Fair it was-ah! very fair: Ah! no more to me is given Life's dark waves have lost the glitter Naught its sweetness may restore : For I know how vainly given Life's most precious things may be, Love that might have looked on heaven, Even as it looked on thee. Ah, farewell!-with that word dying, Hope and love must perish too: For thy sake themselves denying, What is truth with thee untrue? THE CRUSADER'S RETURN. "Alas! the mother that him bare, If she had been in presence there, In his wan cheeks and sunburnt hair She had not known her child."-Marmion. REST, pilgrim, rest!-thou 'rt from the Syrian land, So full of hope, for that far country's bourne! And dimmed in aspect, who like thee return! Thou 'rt faint-stay, rest thee from thy toils at last : Through the high chestnuts lightly plays the breeze, The stars gleam out, the Ave hour is past, The sailor's hymn hath died along the seas. Thou 'rt faint and worn-hearest thou the fountain welling By the gray pillars of yon ruined shrine? Seest thou the dewy grapes before thee swelling? -He that hath left me trained that loaded vine! |