SHADOWS.

No more with golden dreams elate,
My joys all gone, my hopes all dead,
My soul is sadly desolate,

Her wings depressed, her glory fled.

I hunger for immortal food,

Yet pine or feed on ashes vile; I weary for diviner good,

Yet cleave to earthly joys the while.

I thirst, I pant for cooling streams,
As travellers in the desert grim;
A living stream invites, but seems
To fly me ere I reach the brim.

They say that glory shines afar,

Whilst I in darkness grope forlorn, Thick darkness unrelieved by star, Or promise of a coming dawn.

That hence to heaven a ladder springs, And up and down its crystal stairs Bright angels pass with golden wings,

Wafting around delicious airs.

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE.

That hands invitingly outspread

Would lure and beckon me to rise,

And taste the delectations shed

From happier realms and higher skies.

Oh! wooings kind, yet fruitless all,
My soul in vain essays to soar;
Earth holds me down in captive thrall,
And thus would hold me evermore.

Jesus, thine arm alone can free

My captive soul, and give redress; Thy light can make all darkness flee; Thy love my fainting heart can bless.

THE VOYAGE OF LIFE.

IN a frail bark upon a treacherous sea, Beneath a sky of changing gloom and shine,

I'm sailing ever on unrestingly,

Bound for a land afar, a coast divine.

Now sings the fresh breeze in the swelling sail, And the clear waters mirror skies and sun;

My boat bounds buoyantly before the gale,

Fearless and brave its venturous way to run.

In the far distance, where the sea and sky
Blend lovingly, and love's own purple wear,
The shores my bark is bound for calmly lie,
All vaguely beautiful and dimly fair.

Anon, the heavens grow dark, the wild winds rave,
O'er my poor skiff the rough sea-billows roll,
From the dread deeps I cry, Oh! who shall save?
Where may I look for comfort to my soul?

"Peace," says the Master, and the tumult wild Mellows to mildest music at the word;

The ocean yields submissive as a child,

And its tempestuous billows own their Lord.

And Oh! the sweet surprise! the shores which lay All undiscernible in haze afar,

Now near and brighten like the golden day,

When down she steps from morning's misty car.

I see the slopes with deathless verdure crowned,
The glory-laden skies that need no sun;

I hear sweet echoes of divinest sound,
And airs celestial waft my vessel on.

Hail, land of my desire! fair country, hail!
Sweet splendour, fade not! lovely vision, stay!
With thee in sight, though rudest storms assail,
My spirit never more shall feel dismay.

THE SEA.

THE SEA.

I HAVE looked on many fairy spots of this delightful earth,

All radiant with the summer light which calls the wild things forth;

And my heart hath drunk in joyfulness from many a lovely thing,
From rosy hue of wilding flowers and insects rainbowed wing,
And twinkling of the sunny grass and dancing leaflets bright,
And glimmering of the weird-like stars when skies are still at night.

And I've heard full many a witching tone on summer breezes borne,
And carol of the blithesome lark that loves the dewy morn,

And singing of the sparkling founts and sound of summer showers
That make the dim woods beautiful and wake the languid flowers,
And merry hum of blissful things that bask in beamy light,
And trees with gentle winds astir in the fair and sweet twilight.

But another sight I yearn to see, majestic, grand, and wild,
That I have longed to look upon e'en from a very child;

And other tones I fain would hear, deep, thrilling, and sublime,
Which have aye been pealing solemnly e'er since the birth of time;
'Tis the ocean's foam-fringed, heaving waves that I so fain would see,
And the music I would listen to is the billows' melody.

Oh! to see it in its gentleness so like a cradled child,

To hear it softly whispering then with voice so sweet and mild,
When its glistering waves of emerald hue caress the golden shore,
And strew the sands with roseate shells fresh from its treasure-store;
Oh to hearken its low breathings then! to list its dreamy moan!

To have one's spirit quieted by its calmy, lulling tone!

Or to witness it in wrathful mood when direful storms begin!
To hear the wild uproarious strife, the fierce incessant din!
When furious waves dash fearfully against some rocky shore,
And darkling skies frown angrily amid the wild uproar,
Oh then it were indeed a joy at which my heart would leap
To be anear the scene and mark the grandeur of the deep!

Ocean, I dwell afar from thee upon an inland spot,
And to behold thee calm or wild may never be my lot,
But thou shalt dwell within my heart a thing of which to dream
When lulled into drowsiness beside some tinkling stream;

Or when enrapt I fix my gaze upon the starry sky,

I will fancy it that part of thee where the blessed islets lie.

Well, I shall one day look upon a far more glorious sight

Than even thee, thou grand and dread, thou beautiful and bright;
When these eyes are cleared of earthly film, and my spirit soars away
To mingle with the unbodied throng and bask in blissful day,

Then I shall see the streams of time sweeping in wild commotion,
And emptying all their vasty waves in the eternal ocean.