For the Southern Literary Messenger.

SONG—By the Author of Vyvyan.

On the brow of the mountain
The grey mists darkle—
On the wave of the fountain
Star images sparkle—
Wild lights o'er the meadow
Are fitfully gleaming—
In the hill's dark shadow
A spirit is dreaming.
The birds and the flowers
With closed eyes are sleeping,
All hushed are the bowers
Where glow-worms are creeping—
There's quiet in heaven,
There's peace to the billow—
A blessing seems given
To all—save my pillow.
Alas! do I wonder
I too cannot sleep,
Like the calm waves yonder,
And dream all as deep?—
There's beauty beside me,
A love-heaving breast—
Ah! my very joys chide me,
And rob me of rest.

For the Southern Literary Messenger.

LINES ON FINDING A BILLET FROM AN EARLY FRIEND AMONG SOME OLD PAPERS.

I gaze on this discolored sheet
Which time has tinged with many a stain,
And sigh to think his course should bring
To nought, that friendship nursed in vain.
Here in your well known hand I see
My name, with terms endearing traced,
And vows of firm fidelity,
Which other objects soon effaced.
Strange does it seem, that in these words
A dead affection I should find,
As if some early buried friend
Resumed his place among his kind.
Yes—after many a chilling year
Of coldness and of alter'd feeling,
This tatter'd messenger is here,
Worlds of forgotten thought revealing.
As once my faith was purely thine,
For thee my blood I would have pour'd
As freely as the rich red wine
We pledged around the jovial board.
It seem'd that thou wert thus to me,
Loyal and true as thou didst swear:
I knew not then, as now I know,
That oaths are but impassion'd air.
And even now, a doubt that they
Were falsehoods all, will cross my brain:
That thought alone I seek to quell,
That thought alone could give me pain.
To be forgotten has no sting—
For friendships every day grow cold;
But 'tis a wounding thought, that I
Have purchased dross, and paid in gold.
Tho' thou hast changed, as worldlings change
Amid the haunts of sordid men,
I cannot bid my feelings range—
But cling to what I deem'd thee then.