THE WIDOW. Written at the request of a Lady, who furnished several of the lines and the plan of the whole. АH! who is she that sits and weeps, -In that fresh grave her true love sleeps, "Sweets to the sweet!" the prattler cries; Ah! then she starts, looks up, her eyes o'erflow With all a mother's love, and all a widow's wo. Again she turns away her head, She sees her husband and her child; Ah! then her bosom burns, her eyes o'erflow And still I find her sitting here, O then it charms her inmost soul, To watch the clouds of autumn roll, The spirits of enjoyments past, She sees, she hears;—ah! then her eyes o'erflow Not with the mother's love, but with the widow's wo. Yon peasant dreads a gathering storm, Yet pauses as he hastens by, Marks the pale ruin of her form, The desolation of her eye; Beholds her babe for shelter creep "Ah me!" he sighs, "when I am thus laid low, Must my poor partner feel a widow'd mother's wo?" He gently stretches out his arm, Seeks the warm comforts of his cot; He meets his wife;-ah! then his eyes o'erflow; The storm retires;-and hark! the bird, See the delighted mourner start, Then gleams her eye, her fancy hears Go to thine home, forsaken fair! Thou lovely pilgrim, in despair, Eyes the dear pledge he left behind: So love may deem, and death may prove it so: MOTTO TO "A POET'S PORTFOLIO." (FRAGMENT OF A PAGE OF OBLIVION.) FALL'N feathers of a moulting wing, Which ne'er again may soar; Notes, sung in autumn woods, where Spring Shall hear their sounds no more: Her voice and plume-the bird renews; Man fails but once ;-'tis in the tomb, AT HOME IN HEAVEN. 1 THESS. iv. 17. PART I. "FOR ever with the LORD!" -Amen, so let it be; Life from the dead is in that word, "Tis immortality. Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam; Yet nightly pitch my moving tent My Father's house on high, At times, to faith's foreseeing eye, Ah! then my spirit faints To reach the land I love, Yet clouds will intervene, And all my prospect flies; Like Noah's dove, I flit between Rough seas and stormy skies. Anon the clouds dispart, The winds and waters cease, While sweetly o'er my gladden'd heart Expands the bow of peace. Beneath its glowing arch, I hear at morn and even, At noon and midnight hour, The choral harmonies of heaven Earth's Babel-tongues o'erpower. Then, then I feel that He, The LORD is never far from me, PART II. In darkness as in light, Hidden alike from view, I sleep, I wake within his sight, From the dim hour of birth, All that I am, have been, All that I yet may be, He sees at once, as He hath seen, How can I meet His eyes? Mine on the cross I cast, And own my life a Saviour's prize, Mercy from first to last. "For ever with the LORD!” -Father, if 'tis thy will, The promise of that faithful word, Even here to me fulfil. |