My joy, my solace, and my pride

I found thee still:

Whatever change our fortunes might betide

Of good or ill,

Worthier I was life's blessing to receive

While thou didst live;

All that I had of good in others' sight, Reflected shone thy virtue's borrowed light.

The lute unstrung-the meals in silence ate
We wont to share;

The widowed bed-the chamber desolate,
Thou art not there;

The tear at parting, and the greeting kiss,
Who would not miss?

Endearments fond, and solaced hours, and all
The important trivial things men comfort call.

Oh! mayst thou, if permitted, from above
The starry sphere,

Encompass me with ever-during love,

As thou didst here:

Still be my guardian spirit, lest I be

Unworthy thee;

Still, as on earth, thy grace celestial give,

SO GUIDE MY LIFE AS THOU WOULDST HAVE ME LIVE.

JOHN FISHER MURRAY.

To Mary in Heaven.

THOU lingering star, with lessening ray,
That lovest to greet the early morn,

Again thou usherst in the day

My Mary from my soul was torn.

O Mary! dear departed shade!

Where is thy place of blissful rest?

Seest thou thy lover lowly laid?

Hearst thou the groans that rend his breast?

That sacred hour can I forget,

Can I forget the hallowed grove, Where by the winding Ayr we met, To live one day of parting love! Eternity will not efface

Those records dear of transports past; Thy image at our last embrace;

Ah! little thought we 't was our last!

Ayr, gurgling, kissed his pebbled shore,

O'erhung with wild woods, thickening green; The fragrant birch, and hawthorn hoar, Twined amorous round the raptured scene: The flowers sprang wanton to be prest, The birds sang love on every spray, Till too, too soon, the glowing west Proclaimed the speed of winged day.

Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes,
And fondly broods with miser care!
Time but the impression deeper makes,
As streams their channels deeper wear.
My Mary! dear departed shade!

Where is thy blissful place of rest?
Seest thou thy lover lowly laid?

Hearst thou the groans that rend his breast?

Maidenhood.

MAIDEN! with the meek brown eyes,
In whose orb a shadow lies,
Like the dusk in evening skies!

Thou whose locks outshine the sun,
Golden tresses wreathed in one,
As the braided streamlets run!

Standing with reluctant feet,
Where the brook and river meet,
Womanhood and childhood fleet!

Gazing, with a timid glance,
On the brooklet's swift advance,
On the river's broad expanse!

BURNS.

Deep and still, that gliding stream
Beautiful to thee must seem,
As the river of a dream.

Then, why pause with indecision,
When bright angels, in thy vision,
Beckon thee to fields Elysian?

Seest thou shadows sailing by,
As the dove with startled eye
Sees the falcon's shadow fly?

Hearst thou voices on the shore,
That our ears perceive no more,
Deafened by the cataract's roar?

O, thou child of many prayers!
Life hath quicksands,—Life hath snares!
Care and age come unawares!

Like the swell of some sweet tune,
Morning rises into noon,
May glides onward into June.

Childhood is the bough, where slumbered
Birds and blossoms many-numbered ;—
Age, that bough with snows encumbered.

Gather, then, each flower that grows,
When the young heart overflows,
To embalm that tent of snows.

Bear a lily in thy hand;

Gates of brass cannot withstand
One touch of that magic wand.

Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth,
In thy heart the dew of youth,
On thy lips the smile of truth.

O, that dew, like balm, shall steal
Into wounds that cannot heal,
Even as sleep our eyes doth seal;

And that smile, like sunshine, dart
Into many a sunless heart,
For a smile of God thou art.

LONGFELLOW.

Eve describes her First Sensations.

THAT day I oft remember, when from sleep
I first awaked, and found myself reposed

Under a shade of flowers, much wondering where
And what I was, whence thither brought, and how.
Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
Of waters issued from a cave and spread
Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved,
Pure as th' expanse of Heaven; I thither went
With unexperienced thought, and laid me down
On the green bank, to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me seemed another sky.
As I bent down to look, just opposite,

A shape within the watery gleam appeared