Now deeply traced with sorrow is the once unclouded brow,
And eyes that sparkled joyously are dim with weeping now;
We are tasting life in earnest—all its vain illusions gone—
And the stars that glisten'd o'er our path are falling one by one.
Some are sleeping with their kindred—summer blossoms o'er them wave;
Some, lonely and unfriended, with the stranger found a grave;
While others now are wand'ring on a far and foreign shore,
And that happy, loving company shall meet—ah! never more.
But afar in mem'ry's garden, like a consecrated spot,
The heart's first hopes are hidden, and can never be forgot;
And the light that cheer'd us onward, in our airy early days—
Oft we linger in the distance to look back upon its rays.
Old Time, with hand relentless, may shed ruins o'er the earth,
May strew our path with sorrow, make a desert of our hearth—
Change may blight our fairest blossoms, shroud our clearest light in gloom;
But the flow'ry fields of early years shall never lose their bloom.
AFFECTION'S FAITH.
Away on the breast of the ocean,
Far away o'er the billowy brine,
'Mid the strife of the boiling commotion,
Where the storm and the tempest combine,
Roams my heart, of its wand'ring ne'er weary;
While Hope, with her heavenly smile,
Cheers the bosom that else would be dreary,
And points me to blessings the while.
Of the far-hidden future still dreaming,
On the wild wings of fancy I fly,
And the star of affection, bright beaming,
Is piercing the gloom of our sky;
And my home is away o'er the ocean,
Afar o'er the wide swelling sea,
Where a heart, in its purest devotion,
Is breathing fond blessings on me.