To tell how fair it was in happier hours:
It leaves behind reproaches and regrets,
And bitterness within affection's well,
For which there is no healing.

THE FAITH OF LOVE.

Thou hast watch'd beside the bed of death,

O fearless human love!

Thy lip received the last faint breath,
Ere the spirit fled above.

Thy prayer was heard by the parting bier,

In a low and farewell tone,

Thou hast given the grave both flower and tear.
-O Love! thy task is done.

Then turn thee from each pleasant spot,
Where thou wert wont to rove;

For there the friend of thy soul is not,
Nor the joy of thy youth, O Love!

Thou wilt meet but mournful Memory there,
Her dreams in the grove she weaves,

With echoes filling the summer air,

With sighs the trembling leaves.

Then turn thee to the world again,

From these dim haunted bowers,

And shut thine ear to the wild sweet strain That tells of vanish'd hours.

And wear not on thine aching heart

The image of the dead,

For the tie is rent that gave thee part
In the gladness its beauty shed:

And gaze on the pictured smile no more
That thus can life outlast,

All between parted souls is o'er;

-Love! Love! forget the past!

"Voice of vain boding! away, be still!
Strive not against the faith

That yet my bosom with light can fill,
Unquench'd and undimm'd by death:

"From the pictured smile I will not turn, Though sadly now it shine;

Nor quit the shades that in whispers mourn For the step once link'd with mine:

"Nor shut mine ear to the song of old, Though its notes the pang renew, -Such memories deep in my heart I hold, To keep it pure and true.

"By the holy instinct of my heart,
By the hope that bears me on,
I have still my own undying part
In the deep affection gone.

By the presence that about me seems
Through night and day to dwell,
Voice of vain bodings and fearful dreams!
-I have breathed no last farewell!"

wwwwwwww.

HEMANS.

THE BETROTHED.

Betrothed to one long worship'd and enshrined
In the veil'd altars of that vestal mind,
Dreaming of years unwreck'd and fate defied,
With one dear treasure ever by her side-
Pure-gentle-tender as the evening air,
When something holy blends with beauty there-
While vague and voiceless, through the light above
Moves the impassion'd spirit of deep love,

The noble maiden sat!—and in her ear

Came those low tones which maidens deem most dear,
And o'er her young cheeks softest beauty stole
And went, the blushes speeding from the soul;
And oft from earth all guilelessly she raised
The eye e'en Love had ne'er too wildly praised;

The eye which woo'd you like a star to gaze,
And dream that worlds lay couch'd beneath its rays;
And as you gazed, your softening spirit drew,
As from some holy fount, a virtue from its hue.
Sad scenes had temper'd with a pensive grace
The maiden lustre of that faultless face,

Had hung a sweet and dreamlike spell upon
The gliding music of her silver tone;

And shaded the soft soul which loved to lie
In the deep pathos of that volumed eye.

Lone — thoughtful — tender— ever from her birth,
Her heart had been too gentle for light mirth.
Such are the thrones where Love too surely reigns,
And turns his slightest chaplets into chains:
To them the world of others is as nought;

They shrink from earth, and banquet on sweet thought,

And passion grows their life; alas ! for those
Whom rapture leaves too restless for repose,

Who bind on reeds their hopes-their joys—their all,
And idly chide the wild winds when they fall!

www.

Oh! cast thou not

Affection from thee! In this bitter world
Hold to thy heart that only treasure fast ;
Watch-guard it-suffer not a breath to dim
The bright gem's purity!

HEMANS.

A WOMAN'S HEART.

That hallow'd sphere, a woman's heart, contains Empires of feeling, and the rich domains

Where Love, disporting in his sunniest hours, Breathes his sweet incense o'er ambrosial flowers; that gem, divinely set

A woman's heart!

In native gold that peerless amulet,

Which firmly link'd to Love's electric chain,
Connects the worlds of transport and of pain!

J. BIRD.

GIVE ME BUT THY LOVE.

Give me but thy love, and I

Envy none beneath the sky;
Pains and perils I defy

If thy presence cheer me.
Give me but thy love, my sweet!
Joy shall bless us when we meet ;
Pleasures come, and cares retreat,

When thou smilest near me.

Happy 'twere, beloved one,
When the toils of day are done,
Ever with the set of sun

To thy fond arms retiring;
There to feel, and there to know