Away with your counsels, and hinder me not- Young, and strong, and sanguine, and free- FORTY. Ан, рoor youth! in pitiful truth, Haply, within a few swift years, A mind bowed down with troubles and fears, Haply, to follies an early wreck For the cloud of presumption is now like a speck, And with a whelming, sudden sweep, The storm of temptation roars over the deep; Lower the sail of pride, rash youth Stand to the lowly tiller of truth; The sport of the winds on a stormy sea. Care and peril in lieu of joy Guilt and dread may be thine, proud boy; Lo, thy mantling chalice of life Is foaming with sorrow, and sickness, and strife Cheated by pleasure, and sated with pain- -It is well. I discern a tear on thy cheek; For life, good youth, hath never an ill Which hope cannot scatter, and faith cannot kill · And stubborn realities never shall bind The free-spreading wings of a cheerful mind. THE SONG OF SEVENTY. I AM not old—I cannot be old, Though threescore years and ten I am not old; though friends and foes And left me alone to my joys or my woes, I am not old-I cannot be old, Though tottering, wrinkled and gray; Though my eyes are dim, and my marrow is cold, Call me not old to-day. For early memories round me throng, Old times, and manners, and men, I look behind, and am once more young, Before they called me old. I do not see her-the old wife there Shrivelled, and haggard, and gray, sung, But I look on her blooming, and soft, and fair, I do not see you, daughters and sons, But I kiss you now as I kissed you once, And, as my own grandson rides on my knee, I can well recollect I was merry as he- 'Tis not long since-it cannot be long- Since I was a boy, both straight and strong, A dream, a dream-it is all a dream! Eye hath not seen, tongue hath not told, How buoyant and bold, though it seem to grow old, For ever young-though life's old Hath every nerve unstrung; The heart, the heart is a heritage age, NATURE'S NOBLEMAN. AWAY with false fashion, so calm and so chill, For the deepest in feeling is highest in rank, And Nature's own nobleman, friendly and frank, Fearless in honesty, gentle yet just, He warmly can love—and can hate, Nor will he bow down with his face in the dust, For best in good breeding, and highest in rank, Is Nature's own nobleman, friendly and frank, His fashion is passion, sincere and intense, His impulses, simple and true, Yet tempered by judgment, and taught by good sense, For the finest in manners, as highest in rank, NEVER GIVE UP! NEVER give up! it is wiser and better The watchword of life must be, Never give up! Never give up! there are chances and changes Is the true watchword of Never give up! Never give up! though the grape-shot may rattle. Providence wisely has mingled the cup, THE SUN. BLAME not, ye million worshippers of gold- Knelt to the sun, outpouring prayer and praise Watching its majesty with painful gaze, I too could kneel among that Persian band, Had not the Architect of yon bright sphere Taught me himself; bidding me look above, Beneath, around, and still to find Him-here! King of the heart, dwelling in no fix'd globe, But gladly throned within the spirit of love, Wearing that light ethereal as a robe. ΤΗΕ ΜΟΟΝ, I KNOW thee not, O moon!-thou caverned realm, Where cold, alternate, and the sulphurous breath Of ravaging volcanoes, overwhelm All chance of life like ours-art thou not Some fallow world, after a reaping time Of creatures' judgment, resting in thy lot? Or haplier must I take thee for the blot On God's fair firmament, the home of crime, The prison-house of sin, where damned souls Feed upon punishment? O thought sublime, That, amid Night's black deeds, when evil prowls Through the broad world, then, watching sinners well. Glares over all the wakeful eye of Hell! |