Sits the dim, shadowy thing which only haunts And thy soft bosom-where my head has lain, And dreamt youth's dream,-heaves with unquiet motion! And thou art weeping! (there are those who weep graves! Why come by night, who may not come by day! My pale Floranthe! is upon thy heart! Thou canst not love again !—'tis all too late! Sit here, Floranthe !-come to me, mine own! And touch our old guitar;—the strings are new! We meet !—but not as, once, we met! Our better days are o'er, And, dearly as I prize thee, yet, I cannot love thee more : My young and precious hopes were wept, With many tears, away, And, since thy faith so long has slept, It wakes too late, to-day! Oh! sighs and smiles are idle, all, Like roses -if to-night they die, To-morrow's sun is vain; And oh ! like birds-if once let fly, My heart has found no treasure, yet, And years of long and lone regret Have made me what you see!— Then, dearly welcome back again, But ask no lover's vow; The world-that had not won it, then, May not restore it now! THE CONVICT SHIP. MORN on the waters!—and, purple and bright, O'er the glad waves, like a child of the sun, Full to the breeze she unbosoms her sail, And her pennant streams onward, like hope, in the gale! Bright as the visions of youth, ere they part, Oh! there be hearts that are breaking, below! Night on the waves!—and the moon is on high, Hung, like a gem, on the brow of the sky; Treading its depths, in the power of her might, And turning the clouds, as they pass her, to light! Look to the waters!—asleep on their breast, Seems not the ship like an island of rest? Bright and alone on the shadowy main, Like 'a heart-cherished home on some desolate plain! Spreading her wings on the bosom of night, |