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524

ANGELINA S. MUMFORD.

I would not blush to give away whatever I possess 
Of artless and confiding faith, and woman's tenderness;
I would not blush to wrap my thoughts around one pulse that thrills

With the delicious sense of life, that all my being fills.

Though Love is widow'd of its trust, and weeps the living death, 
And Genius, bending to its clay, foregoes the ivy wreath,
The only night that I could know would be the soul's eclipse,
The guile that worketh at the heart,-the falsehood on the lips.

I love the smallest living thing to tears; and quiet thought 
Hath sanctified the beautiful, with every thing inwrought; 
I hear a glad philosophy throughout existence hymning, And often think the cup of life for me is full to brimming.


TO A LADY.

THINE eyes are very beautiful!
I would they were less bright,
For then the serpent shining there
Could never pain my sight.

I would that sometimes they were seen
To shed repentant tears,
O'er all the ruin of thy heart,
O'er all the blight of years.

Thy brow so very queenly too,
Truth's coronet should grace;
But Falsehood's circlet dark too oft
Usurps the sacred place.

And though thy lip smiles lovingly,
And though thy cheek is fair;
Where dimpling graces should abide
Deceit hath made its lair.

525

ANGELINA S. MUMFORD.

I've been among the foolish ones
Who loud thy praises sing,
And almost wept to think thou art
A hollow-hearted thing:

Unworthy all the flattery
Thou livest to secure;
Unlovely in thy inner life,
Though outwardly so pure.

Ah! yes, thy face is beautiful,
But vainly there I trace
The type of inward purity,
And spiritual grace.

And gloomy is the prophecy,
That fills my boding heart;
For me thou never hast deceived,
With thine unequall'd art.

And they who know thy treachery,
Whom thou hast once beguiled,
They spare thee for thy husband's sake
And for thy only child.

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-29 16:25:11 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-30 11:06:39 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-30 10:39:25