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356     ANNA PEYRE DINNIES.

And since thou came Truth's messenger,
Thou shalt remain and speak of her.

She says thou art a herald sent
In kind and friendly warning,
To mix with locks by beauty blent,
(The fair young brow adorning,)
And 'midst their wild luxuriance taught
To show thyself, and waken thought.

That thought, which to the dreamer preaches
A lesson stern as true,
That all things pass away, and teaches
How youth must vanish too!
And thou wert sent to rouse anew
This thought, whene'er thou meet'st the view.

And comes there not a whispering sound,
A low, faint, murmuring breath,
Which, as thou movest, floats around
Like echoes in their death?
"Time onward sweeps, youth flies, prepare"—
Such is thine errand, First Gray Hair.


HOPE.

In life's young morn, with buds and flowers,
Hope, smiling nymph, appears,
And sings, to charm our opening hours,
A thousand siren airs.

And though her fairy buds decay,
And soon her flow'rets fall;
She lures us on from day to day,
With strains that never pall.


ANNA PEYRE DINNIES.      357

She hovers o'er the darkest cloud
That life's sad pathway shades,
And e'en when tempests rage most loud,
Her voice the storm pervades.

She lights our gloom — she soothes our care—
She bids our fears depart,
Transforms to gems each grief-fraught tear,
And binds the broken heart.

She glances o'er us from above,
The brightest star that's given,
And guides us still through faith and love,
To endless peace in Heaven!


LINES.

(WRITTEN AFTER SEEING MACREADY IN VIRGINIUS.)

And I have seen thee, gifted one! at last!
Thy spirit-stirring accents — they have come
Like some remember'd melody, long past,
Calling up fancies of my childhood's home;
And speaking to my heart in tones that seem
The clear familiar whisperings of a dream!

For thou hast been to me a dream! thy name
A spell round which my fancy fondly clung
Since the first echo of its deathless fame,
Like far-off music, on my ear was flung—
And I have ponder'd o'er thy power, till thought
Grew faint with all the wonders it hath wrought.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-27 22:13:35 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 15:32:08 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 15:54:29