Since that dark and fatal hour When the brothers parted, Reason has had wealth and power— Rhyme's poor and broken-hearted. And now, on bright or stormy weather, They twain are seldom seen together.
AH NO! AH NO!
To a Favourite Child.
BY JAMES NACK.
In life, perhaps, thou hast only trod As yet in a path as soft and sweet As the flowerets wreathed on a verdant sod, Which bend to the pressure of delicate feet. In the path thou hast only begun to tread, Perhaps no thorn has betrayed its sting; And the clouds that brood there too oft have fled, By innocence chased on her snow-white wing: For often a paradise seems to attend Our earliest steps in this world below; But ah! will that paradise bloom to the end? Stern destiny answers, "Ah No! Ah No!"
The tree with verdure adorns the shore While the laving spray at its foot is thrown; But the waves roll on to return no more, And the tree stands withering all alone. Each friend of our early years is a wave In the sea of joy we are flourishing by; But they roll away to the gulf of the grave, And our hearts in loneliness withering sigh. And such is the doom I must bear—for now, While yet in my boyhood I find it so— But never, dear cherub, may heaven allow Such doom to await thee, Ah No! Ah No!
A HEALTH.
BY MISS ELIZABETH C. CLINCH.