TO LADY ANNE HAMILTON. Let us drink-pledge me high-Love and Virtue shall flavor The glass which I fill to wife, children, and friends. HON. WILLIAM R. SPENCER. TO LADY ANNE HAMILTON. OO late I stayed! forgive the crime,— Unheeded flew the hours; How noiseless falls the foot of Time That only treads on flowers! What eye with clear account remarks The ebbing of his glass, When all its sands are diamond sparks, Ah! who to sober measurement Time's happy swiftness brings. When birds of paradise have lent HON. WILLIAM R. SPENCER. His servants, horses, oxen, cows,- But cunning Satan did not take his spouse. But Heaven, that brings out good from evil, And loves to disappoint the devil, Had predetermined to restore Twofold all he had before; His servants, horses, oxen, cows Short-sighted devil, not to take his spouse! Their place we may not well supply, Though we among a thousand try With vain endeavor. A month or more hath she been dead, Yet cannot I by force be led TO HESTER SAVORY. To think upon the wormy And her together. A springy motion in her gait, A rising step, did indicate bed Of pride and joy no common rate That flushed her spirit: I know not by what name beside I shall it call; if 'twas not pride, She did inherit. Her parents held the Quaker rule. But she was train'd in Nature's school, Nature had blest her. A waking eye, a prying mind, A heart that stirs, is hard to bind; A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind, Ye could not Hester. CHRISTMAS OUT OF TOWN. My sprightly neighbor! gone before To that unknown and silent shore, Shall we not meet, as heretofore Some summer morning— When from thy cheerful eyes a ray A bliss that would not go away, A sweet fore-warning? CHARLES LAMB. CHRISTMAS OUT OF TOWN. OR many a winter in Billiter-lane, FOR My wife, Mrs. Brown, was not heard to complain; At Christmas the family met there to dine O beef and plum-pudding, and turkey and chine. Our bark has now taken a contrary heel, My wife has found out that the sea is genteel. |