Page:Fugitive Poetry 1600-1878.djvu/149
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Recollections.
I've pleasant thoughts which memory brings, in moments free from care,
Of a fairy-like and laughing girl, with roses in her hair;
Her smile was like the starlight of summer's softest skies,
And worlds of joyousness there shone from out her witching eyes.
Of a fairy-like and laughing girl, with roses in her hair;
Her smile was like the starlight of summer's softest skies,
And worlds of joyousness there shone from out her witching eyes.
Her looks were looks of melody, her voice was like the swell
Of sudden music, gentle notes that of deep gladness tell!
She came, like spring, with pleasant sounds of sweetness and of mirth,
And her thoughts were those wild flowery thoughts that linger not on earth.
Of sudden music, gentle notes that of deep gladness tell!
She came, like spring, with pleasant sounds of sweetness and of mirth,
And her thoughts were those wild flowery thoughts that linger not on earth.
A quiet goodness beamed amid the beauty of her face,
And all she said and did was with its own instinctive grace;
She seemed as if she thought the world a good and pleasant one,
And her light spirit saw no ill in aught beneath the sun.
And all she said and did was with its own instinctive grace;
She seemed as if she thought the world a good and pleasant one,
And her light spirit saw no ill in aught beneath the sun.
I've dreamed of just such creatures, but they never met my view,
'Mid the sober dull reality in their earthly form and hue,
And her smile came gently o'er me like spring's first scented airs,
And made me think life was not all a wilderness of cares.
'Mid the sober dull reality in their earthly form and hue,
And her smile came gently o'er me like spring's first scented airs,
And made me think life was not all a wilderness of cares.
I know not of her destiny, or where her smile now strays,
But the thought of her comes o'er me with my own lost sunny days,
With moonlight hours, and far-off friends, and many pleasant things
That have gone the way of all the earth, on Time's resistless wings.
But the thought of her comes o'er me with my own lost sunny days,
With moonlight hours, and far-off friends, and many pleasant things
That have gone the way of all the earth, on Time's resistless wings.
A Retrospect.
In the east the shadows deepen, and come creeping where the sun,
In the morning, earth adorning, on his glorious march begun,
And gilded in the distant west the silver web he spun.
Now night's dark pall is thrown o'er all the sons of toil each one,
For now to wearied nature all the daily task is done.
In the morning, earth adorning, on his glorious march begun,
And gilded in the distant west the silver web he spun.
Now night's dark pall is thrown o'er all the sons of toil each one,
For now to wearied nature all the daily task is done.
In the eve of life the shadows of long-cherished hopes fleet by,
And leave their blight of silvery light on a fair sunny sky,
For God's best gifts are lent us here, and wait us there on high;
Here moth and rust, and dust to dust, and tears that will not dry,—
But sighs, nor fears, nor sorrow's tears ne'er reach beyond the sky.
And leave their blight of silvery light on a fair sunny sky,
For God's best gifts are lent us here, and wait us there on high;
Here moth and rust, and dust to dust, and tears that will not dry,—
But sighs, nor fears, nor sorrow's tears ne'er reach beyond the sky.
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