To Miss Amelie Louise Rives, on Her Departure for France

Lady! that bark will be more richly freighted,
That bears thee proudly on to foreign shores,
Than argosies of which old poets prated,
With Colchian fleece or with Peruvian ores;
Andshould the prayers of friendship prove availing,
That trusting hearts now offer up for thee,
'T will ride the crested wave with braver sailing
Than ever pinnace on the Pontic sea.
The sunny land thou seekest o'er the billow
May boast indeed the honors of thy birth,
And they may keep a vigil round thy pillow
Whom thou dost love most dearly upon earth,
Yet, shall there not remain with thee a vision —
Some lingering thought of happy faces here —
Fonder and fairer than the dreams elysian
Wherein thy future's radiant hues appear?
The high and great shall render thee obeisance,
In halls bedecked with tapestries of gold,
And mansions shall be brighter for thy presence,
Where swept the stately Medicis of old;
Still amid the pomp of all this courtly lustre
I cannot think that thou wilt all forget
The pleasing fantasies that thickly cluster
Around the walls of the old homestead yet!