To H. A. B.

Deem not, beloved, that the glow
Of love with youth will know decay;
For, though the wing of Time may throw
A shadow o'er our way;
The sunshine of a cloudless faith,
The calmness of a holy trust,
Shall linger in our hearts till death
Consigns our "dust to dust!"
The fervid passions of our youth —
The fervour of affection's kiss —
Love, born of purity and truth —
All memories of bliss —
These still are ours, while looking back
Upon the past with dewy eyes;
O, dearest! on life's vanish'd track
How much of sunshine lies!
Men call us poor — it may be true
Amid the gay and glittering crowd;
We feel it, though our wants are few,
Yet envy not the proud.
The freshness of love's early flowers,
Heart-shelter'd through long years of want,
Pure hopes and quiet joys are ours,
That wealth could never grant.
Something of beauty from thy brow,
Something of lightness from thy tread,
Hath pass'd — yet thou art dearer now
Than when our vows were said:
A softer beauty round thee gleams,
Chasten'd by time, yet calmly bright;
And from thine eye of hazel beams
A deeper, tenderer light:
An emblem of the love which lives
Through every change, as time departs;
Which binds our souls in one, and gives
New gladness to our hearts!
Flinging a halo over life
Like that which gilds the life beyond!
Ah! well I know thy thoughts, dear wife!
To thoughts like these respond.
The mother, with her dewy eye,
Is dearer than the blushing bride
Who stood, three happy years gone by,
In beauty by my side!
Our Father, throned in light above,
Hath bless'd us with a fairy child —
A bright link in the chain of love —
The pure and un defiled:
Rich in the heart's best treasure, still
With a calm trust we 'll journey on,
Link'd heart with heart, dear wife! until
Life's pilgrimage be done!
Youth — beauty — passion— these will pass
Like every thing of earth away —
The breath-stains on the polish'd glass
Less transient are than they.
But love dies not — the child of God —
The soother of life's many woes —
She scatters fragrance round the sod
Where buried hopes repose!
She leads us with her radiant hand
Earth's pleasant streams and pasture by,
Still pointing to a better land
Of bliss beyond the sky!
TO
Hope, strewing with a liberal hand
Thy pathway with her choicest flowers,
Making the earth an Eden-land,
And gilding time's departing hours;
Lifting the clouds from life's blue sky,
And pointing to that sphere divine
Where joy's immortal blossoms lie
In the rich light of heaven — be thine!
Love, with its voice of silvery tone,
Whose music melts upon the heart
Like whispers from the world unknown,
When shadows from the soul depart —
Love, with its sunlight melting through
The mists that over earth are driven,
And giving earth itself the hue
And brightness of the upper-heaven —
Peace, hymning with her seraph-tones
Amid the stillness of thy soul,
Till every human passion owns
Her mighty but her mild control —
Devotion, with her lifted eye,
All radiant with the tears of bliss,
Looking beyond the bending sky
To worlds more glorious than this —
Duty, untiring in her toil
Earth's parch'd and sterile wastes among —
Zeal, delving in the rocky soil,
With words of cheer upon her tongue —
Faith, with a strong and daring hand
Rending aside the veil of heaven,
And claiming as her own the land
Whose glories to her view are given —
These, with the many lights that shine
Brightly life's pilgrim-path upon, —
These, with the bliss they bring, be thine,
Till purer bliss in heaven be won;
Till, gather'd with the loved of time,
Whose feet the "narrow way" have trod,
Thy soul shall drink of joys sublime,
And linger in the smile of God!