Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

A GREETING.

Ir were not well to vex thee with my praises,
Yet I am quick to read thy gifts aright,

[ocr errors]

Loving, sincere, and wise, in three best phases, Young heart, I note thy characters of light; Spirits are keen to make such instant guesses; For time is nothing to the Soul that lives; Therefore my spirit thy good spirit blesses, Therefore my Mind its cordial greeting gives, — Its greeting? of a moment, sad to tell,

For all my greeting is a true Farewell!

HORACE'S PHILOSOPHY.

III. 29.

WISELY for us within night's sable veil
God hides the future; and, if men turn pale
For dread distrusting, laughs their fear to scorn.
For thee, the present calmly order well:

All else as on a river's tide is borne,
Now flowing peaceful to the Tuscan sea

Down the mid-channel on a gentle swell; Now, as the hoarse, fierce mandate of the flood Stirs up the quiet stream, time-eaten rocks

Go hurrying down, with houses, herds, and flocks. And echoes from the mountain and the wood. He stands alone, glad, self-possessed, and free, Who grateful for to-day can say, I live; To-morrow let my Father take or give:

[ocr errors]

As He may will, not I with dark or light
Let God ordain the morrow, noon, or night.
He, even He, can never render vain

The past behind me; nor bring back again
What any transient hour has once made fact.
Fortune, rejoicing in each cruel act,
And playing frowardly a saucy game,
Dispenses changeful and uncertain fame.
Now kind to me, and now to some beside.
I praise her here: but if it should betide
She spreads her wings for flight, I hold no more

The good she gave, but in mine honest worth,
Clad like a man, go honorably forth

To seek the undowried portion of the poor.

"THE LAST TIME."

ANOTHER year? another year!

Who dare depend on other years?
The judgment of this world is near,
And all its children faint for fears:
Famine, pestilence, and war,

Mixt with praises, prayers, and tears
Civil strife and social jar,

Spurr'd by pen, and stirr'd by sword,
Herald Him who comes from far,

In Elijah's fiery car,

Our own returning Lord!

Look around the nations quail !
All the elements of ill
Crowd like locusts on the gale,
And the dark horizon fill:

[blocks in formation]

Every warning in thy word,
Signs and tokens all array'd

In proof of that for which we pray'd,
The coming of the Lord!

THE POET'S WEALTH.

I NUMBER you by thousands, unseen friends,
And dearly precious is your love to me;
Yea, what a goodly company ye be!
Far as the noble brotherhood extends

Of Saxon hearts and tongues o'er land and soa:
How rich am I in love! - the sweet amends
For all whatever little else of pain

Some few unkindly cause; - most rich in love,
From mine own home to earth's remotest ends:
Let me then count my store, my glorious gain,
This wealth, that my poor merit far transcends,
Your loving kindness, echoing from above
The Highest Blessing on my works and ways,
Ev doûke ¿yaðé, my Father's praise:

Yea, let me thank you; let my heart outpour
Unbidden notes of honest gratitude
To all whose yearnings follow me with good,
Loving my mind and all its humble store:

O generous friends! — a cordial multitude
Hived in the West, upon that busy shore
Where fair Columbia, Britain's child, is throned
Imperial, yet with empire all unowned,
O generous friends! - another cordial band,
From far Australia to the Arctic seas,
And crowds around me in my own dear land,—
How, how to thank for mercies rich as these?
Lo, let me stand and bless from East to West,

From North to South,- because I thus am blest! 1ye: blest indeed above the lot of men,

And rich in joys that reach the true sublime! For that the magic-music of my pen

Hath won such wealth of love in every clime,
And still shall win such treasure for all time,
Therefore my soul is glad: judge me, my friends,
Is not the poet wealthier in his joys
Than Attalus with all his golden toys?
And, as his growing dynasty extends

To children's children, reigning in the mind,
Is he not great, a monarch of his kind?

Ah me! not so: this thought of pride destroys: Give God the praise: His blessings send this store Of unseen friends by thousands evermore!

ΘΕΩ ΔΟΞΑ,

« ElőzőTovább »