LOVE.
When first from Eden's blissful bowers,
Man roamed o'er earth in exile driven,
Kind Heaven, to cheer his lonely hours,
A source of joy to him hath given.
'Tis Love, that lights our darkest days,
'Tis Love, that cheers our keenest woe,
'Tis Love, whose soul inspiring rays,
Gilds all our lives with heaven-lent glow.
Ambition leads us for a while
To follow many a meteor light—
Whose flickering beams our souls beguile,
And lure us on to hopeless night.
And Fame may sound her clarion voice—
Wealth bring his hoards from every clime,
But Age shall come, and earth's frail joys
Must own the sway of sovereign Time.
But Love, as flying years go past,
Shall glow with holier, tenderer beam,
And shine, our guiding star at last
Till our dull hearts shall catch a gleam.
And when our life on earth is o'er
And we from all our toil shall rest,
The beams of Love will light that shore
Where Love has ransomed all the Blest!
A BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY.
"Tis sweet, when year by year we lose
Friends out of sight, in faith to muse
How grows in Paradise our store!"—KEBLE.
His Birthday! but to-night there is no gladness,
As in the bright old days forever flown;
And in my heart one aching thought of sadness
Seems ever whispering, Alone! Alone!