  With laughter swimming in thine eye, That told youth's heartfelt revelry; And motion changeful as the wing Of swallow waken'd by the spring; With accents blythe as voice of May Chaunting glad Nature's roundelay; Circled by joy like planet bright That smiles 'mid wreathes of dewy light,— Thy image such, in former time, When thou, just entering on thy prime, And woman's sense in thee combined Gently with childhood's simplest mind, First taught'st my sighing soul to move With hope towards the heaven of love! A thoughtful and a quiet grace:— Though happy still,—yet chance distress Hath left a pensive loveliness; Fancy has tamed her fairy gleams, And thy heart broods o'er home-born dreams! Thy smiles, slow-kindling now and mild, Shower blessings on a darling child; Thy motion slow, and soft thy tread, As if round thy husht infant's bed!— And when thou speak'st, thy melting tone, That tells thy heart is all my own, Sounds sweeter, from the lapse of years, With the wife's love, the mother's fears! By thy glad youth, and tranquil prime Assured, I smile at hoary time! For thou art doom'd in age to know The calm that wisdom steals from woe; The holy pride of high intent, The glory of a life well-spent. With Peace behind, and Faith before, Thou render'st up again to God, Untarnish'd by its frail abode, Thy lustrous soul,—then harp and hymn, From bands of sister seraphim, Asleep will lay thee, till thine eye Open in Immortality. |
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