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70 MARIA A. BROOKS.

'Tis now that solitude has most of pain;
Vague apprehensions of approaching night
Whisper the soul, attuned to bliss, and fain
To find in love equivalent for light.

The bard has sung, God never form'd a soul
Without its own peculiar mate, to meet
Its wandering half, when ripe to crown the whole
Bright plan of bliss, most heavenly, most complete!

But thousand evil things there are that hate
To look on happiness; these hurt, impede;
And leagued with time, space, circumstance, and fate,
Keep kindred heart from heart to pine, and pant, and bleed.

And, as the dove to far Palmyra flying
From where her native founts of Antioch beam,
Weary, exhausted, longing, panting, sighing,
Lights sadly at the desert's bitter stream,—

So — many a soul o'er life's drear desert faring,
Love's pure congenial spring unfound,—unquaff'd—
Suffers — recoils — then, thirsty and despairing
Of what it would, descends and sips the nearest draught,

SONG.

(FROM THE SAME.)

DAY, in melting purple dying,
Blossoms, all around me sighing,
Fragrance, from the lilies straying,
Zephyr, with my ringlets playing,
Ye but waken my distress:
I am sick of loneliness.

Thou to whom I love to hearken,
Come, ere night around me darken;


MARIA A. BROOKS. 71

Though thy softness but deceive me,
Say thou 'rt true, and I'll believe thee;
Veil, if ill, thy soul's intent,
Let me think it innocent.

Save thy toiling, spare thy treasure;
All I ask is friendship's pleasure;
Let the shining ore lie darkling,
Bring no gem in lustre sparkling;
Gifts and gold are nought to me;
I would only look on thee!

Tell to thee the high-wrought feeling,
Ecstasy but in revealing;
Paint to thee the deep sensation,
Rapture in participation,
Yet but torture, if comprest
In a lone unfriended breast.

Absent still? Ah! come and bless me!
Let these eyes again caress thee;
Once. in caution, I could fly thee;
Now, I nothing could deny thee;
In a look if death there be,
Come and I will gaze on thee!

THE GUARDIAN ANGEL.

(FROM THE SAME.)

"CALL me no longer Hariph: I but took,
For love of that young pair, this mortal guise;
And often have I stood, beside Heaven's book,
And given in record there, their deeds and sighs.

"From infancy I've watch'd them,— far apart,—
Oppress'd by men and fiends; yet, form'd to dwell
Soul blent with soul, and beating heart 'gainst heart;
'Tis done.— Behold the angel Raphaël.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-27 16:41:14