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182  MRS. SWIFT.

Of Deity reveal'd, my soul is still'd,
And with its immortality is fill'd.
Ah! then for thee, in deep but wordless prayer,
My spirit, as if borne on angel-wings,
Pleads for thee with the mighty King of kings, 
To guide and guard thee safe through every snare.

For both, the sorrow that makes desolate,
Hath brimm'd a cup whose anguish and dismay 
Wither'd the spring-buds of life's early day;
Dreamers upon the brink of adverse fate,
With childlike trust its stormy billows greeting,
At morn's farewell, and evening's blessed meeting;
Love threw his rainbow on the coming cloud,
And Faith, the angel of this world of tears, 
Pointed with radiant brow to future years.
Alas! for us the Future wove Love's shroud!

TO THE NIGHT-BLOOMING CEREUS.

(WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT.)

Oh, glorious flower!
As thus at midnight hour
With eager gaze I watch thy full revealing,
The spirit of the past
Is o'er my senses cast,
In the rich incense from thy petals stealing. 

Flower of a century, 
The dead have gazed on thee;
Hast thou no message from the olden time?
Where are the living eyes,
That look'd in glad surprise, 
When last thy blossoms open'd in their prime?


MRS. SWIFT.  183

I see a multitude,
The gentle and the rude,
The gay, the sad, the young, the weary-hearted,
They stand before me now,
Each with an upturned brow,
O tell me, when, and where, have they departed?

Thou answerest with death!
E'en as I speak, his breath
Is bowing thy bright head with swifty decay;
And when again ye bloom,
A tenant of the tomb
Like them, sweet flower, I shall have pass'd away!

MEMORY.

'T WAS but a word, a single word
A stranger's lip exprest,
And yet my spirit's depths were stirr'd
With fellings long represt.

Unbidden tear-drops dimm'd my eyes,
My lip still wore a smile;
O how the heart can grief disguise,
And learn deception's wile. 

Thoughts, rushing thoughts, came wild and fast,
The present, it was not,
I only saw the long—long past,
How could it be forgot?

Young voices murmur'd in mine ear
With radiant mirth and glee,
But I, alas! could only hear
The heart that spoke of thee.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 18:16:28 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 17:13:33 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 00:29:10