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130    SARAH JOSEPHA HALE

In true and loving minds, to raise
An Eden for their coming days.

As on each rock, where plants can cling,
The sunshine will be shed;
As from the tiniest star-lit spring,
The ocean's depths are fed;
Thus hopes will rise, if love's clear ray
Keep warm and bright life's rock-strewn way;
And from small, daily joys, distill'd,
The heart's deep fount of peace is fill'd;-
Oh! blest when Fancy's ray is given,
Like the ethereal spark, from heaven!

THE WATCHER.

THE night was dark and fearful,
The blast swept wailing by;
A Watcher, pale and tearful,
Look'd forth with anxious eye;
How wistfully she gazes-
No gleam of morn is there!
And then her heart upraises
Its agony of prayer!

Within that dwelling lonely,
Where want and darkness reign,
Her precious child, her only,
Lay moaning in his pain;
And death alone can free him-
She feels that this must be:
"But oh! for morn to see him
Smile once again on me!"

A hundred lights are glancing
In yonder mansion fair,

SARAH JOSEPHA HALE.    131

And merry feet are dancing-
They heed not morning there:
Oh! young and lovely creatures,
One lamp, from out your store,
Would give that poor boy's features
To her fond gaze once more.

The morning sun is shining-
She heedeth not its ray;
Beside her dead, reclining,
That pale, dead mother lay!
A smile her lip was wreathing,
A smile of hope and love,
As though she still were breathing-
"There's light for us above!"

I SING TO HIM.

I sing to him! I dream he hears
The song he used to love,
And oft that blessed fancy cheers
And bears my thoughts above
Ye say, 't is idle thus to dream-
But why believe it so?
It is the spirit's meteor gleam,
To soothe the pang of woe.

Love gives to nature's voice a tone
That true hearts understand,-
The sky, the earth, the forest lone
Are peopled by his wand;
Sweet fancies all our pulses thrill
While gazing on a flower,
And from the gently whisp'ring rill
Are heard the words of power.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 11:56:41