To Matilda Valentine

Maid of the North ! a distant sky
Kindled with light thy large dark eye ;
And now within its glances rest
The soft beams of our glowing West.

Welcome that sun ! its joyous ray
Smiles on Matilda's native day ;
And, lo ! to soothe her path are given
The happiest hues of earth and heaven.

Hail ! omen of that dawning time
When Maud shall hear her marriage-chime,
And light and music, blended, greet
The pausing matron's homeward feet.

Such and so cloudless be the days
Whereon thy noon of life shall gaze ;
So may a cloudless sunset shine,
Maid of the North, for thee and thine.