Works

A transient day,
A troubled night,
The swift decay,
The certain blight,
And death and dust; -

And are these all? -
Nay: those are past;
And she who sleeps
Shall wake at last...

Balmy morning! blessed morning!
Dew-drops bright
All the emerald glade adorning
In thy light -
In thy golden glowing beam
With an ever-changeful gleam
Flashing sparkling deeply glowing...

Weary soul, by care oppressed,
Wouldst thou find a place of rest?
Listen, Jesus calls to thee,
Come, and find thy rest in me!

Hungry soul, why pine and die
With exhaustless stores so nigh?...

Go, dream no more of a sun-bright sky
With never a cloud to dim! -
Thou hast seen the storm in its robes of night,
Them hast felt the rush of the whirlwind's might,...

(Ps. 3 5.)


Dark was the midnight hour,
And wild with storm. Nor moon nor pitying star
Gleamed through the inky darkness from afar;
And Earth seemed reeling blindly to her doom,...

A voice missed by the dear home-hearth -
A voice of music and gentle mirth -
A voice whose lingering sweetness long
Will float through many a Sabbath song,
And many a hallowed, evening hymn,...

Lightly the shadows
Play through the trees,
Green are the meadows,
Soft is the breeze, -
June's early roses,
Pensive and sweet,
Droop where reposes
Lost Marguerite!
...

Thus early with the dead -
Thou of the young, fair brow, the laughing eye,
The light and joyous tread, -
Mary, we little thought thou would'st be first to die!

A little while ago...

Up from the spirit-depths ringing,
Softly your melody swells,
Sweet as a seraphim's singing,
Tender-toned memory-bells!
The laughter of childhood,
The song of the wildwood,...

Where the willow weepeth
By a fountain lone, -
Where the ivy creepeth
O'er a mossy stone, -
With pale flowers above her,
In a quiet dell.
Far from those who love her,
Slumbers Minniebel.
...

WRITTEN AT THE REQUEST OF A BEREAVED BROTHER.


We were playmates long together,
By the brook and on the hill,
In the golden, summer weather,
When the days were long and still;...

I love thee, Sabbath morn! - I cannot say
But 'tis because my father loved thee so, -
Because my mother's care-worn face would grow
So sweetly placid in thy peaceful ray; -
...

Laughing and singing
With rhythmical flow,
Leaping and springing,
O light-hearted Sault! -
Tossing up snowy hands
In thy glad play,
Shaking out dewy locks
Bright with the spray, -...

Oh, take me where the wild flowers bloom!


Oh, take me where the wild flowers bloom!
I'm dying, mother dear!
And shades of ever deepening gloom
Are round, and o'er me here, -...

"Stay, mother, stay, for the storm is abroad,
And the tempest is very wild;
It's a fearful night with no ray of light,
Oh stay with your little child!"
...

The night was dark and dreary,
And the autumn-wind went by
With a sound like Sorrow's wailing
In its sadly mournful cry; -
The yew trees, old and drooping,
Shook in the angry blast,...

I sat beside a bed of pain,
And all the muffled hours were still;
The breeze that bent the summer grain,
Scarce sighed along the pine-clad hill;
The pensive stars, the silvery moon...

Good night! good night! - the golden day
Has veiled its sunset beam,
And twilight's star its beauteous ray
Has mirrored in the stream; -
Low voices come from vale and height,...

Why art thou here, little, motherless one, -
Why art thou here in this bleak world alone?
With that innocent smile on thy beautiful brow,
What hath this stern world for such as thou?
...