TO A RIVER IN WHICH A CHILD WAS DROWNED. SMILING river, smiling river, On thy bosom sun-beams play; In thy channel, in thy channel, Choak'd with ooze and grav'lly stones, Deep immersed, and unhearsed, Lies young Edward's corse: his bones Ever whitening, ever whitening, As thy waves against them dash; As if senseless, as if senseless It destroy'd, it now does grace. THE OLD FAMILIAR FACES. I HAVE had playmates, I have had companions, In my days of childhood, in my joyful school-days, All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I have been laughing, I have been carousing, Drinking late, sitting late, with my bosom cronies, All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I loved a love once, fairest among women; Closed are her doors on me, I must not see her→ All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. I have a friend, a kinder friend has no man; Ghost-like I paced round the haunts of my childhood. Earth seemed a desart I was bound to traverse, Seeking to find the old familiar faces. Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, Why wert not thou born in my father's dwelling? So might we talk of the old familiar faces How some they have died, and some they have left me, And some are taken from me; all are departed; All, all are gone, the old familiar faces. HELEN. HIGH-BORN Helen, round your dwelling High-born Helen, proudly telling These twenty years I've lived on tears, On sighs I've fed, your scorn my bread; Can I, who loved my beloved But for the scorn 66 was in her eye," Can I be moved for my beloved, When she "returns me sigh for sigh?" |