76 HYMN TO VIRTUE. To guide me from the flowery way Ne'er let Ambition's meteor ray So, lovely virgin, may I gain The first Grave. A SINGLE grave! the only one A single grave!-my heart has felt In crowded halls where breathed for me The shade where forest tree shut out I've felt the loneliness of night, My pulse has quicken'd with its awe, A single grave!-We half forget, When round the silent place of rest We stand beneath the haunted yew, 78 THE FIRST GRAVE. The place is purified with hope, The hope that is of prayer; And human love and heavenward thought And pious faith are there. The wild flowers spring amid the grass; The golden cord which binds us all But this grave is so desolate, I do not know who sleeps beneath, His history or name; He is in death the same. Whether he died, unloved, unmourr'd, Or if some desolated hearth Perhaps this is too fanciful : THE FIRST GRAVE. It may be weakness of the heart, Those gentler charities which draw How many a bitter word 'twould hush, MISS LANDON. 79 The Death of a Port. On a couch of pain, in the prime of youth, And all around felt the terrible truth But, though sunken his eye, there now and then came A flash, with such lustre beaming, That Heaven itself seem'd to lend the flame, F 80 THE DEATII OF A POET. He knew that his moments were nearly spent, Nor sought to have them extended; For the work was done for which he was sent, And his mission of love was ended. His fervid strains had been often sung And had waked in the bosoms of old and young And he knew that long when his spirit had pass'd Beyond death's shadowy portal, Those soul-breathing strains would continue to last, And would be-like his spirit-immortal! 66 O God," he cried, "not for richest store, Would I wish among men to linger more, "But to dwell with Thee, and behold thy love, Where Sorrow entereth never; 66 "From this cold world, O take me above His prayer was heard,-upon gentle wings No longer on earth the poet sings:- WILLIAM GURNER. |