YOUTHFUL LOVE.

I.

BEING absent, yet thou art not wholly gone,

For thou hast stamped thine image on the world ;

It shines before me in the blushing dawn,

And sunset clouds around its grace are furled.
* Hast thou not burdened every summer breeze
With the remembered music of thy voice?
Sweeter than linnet's song in garden trees,
And making wearisome all other joys.

Sleep vainly strives to bar thee from his hall,-
Thou winn'st light entrance in a dream's disguise,
And there, with gentlest sway thou rulest all
His gliding visions and quick phantasies.

The busy day is thine; the quiet night

Sleeps in thy radiance, as these skies in light.

II.

Or stooping toward me from the stainless sphere,
And reaching dearest hands of comfort down,
Thou guidest steps that falter on alone,
Through darkened ways. Do I not feel thee near,
And lightest whispers of thy spirit hear,
Clearer than yonder sea's eternal moan?
And ah! no breath of any mournful tone,
But lessons of high courage, holy cheer,
And such sweet notes as charm the snake Despair.
Shall it not be so? Doth poor Fancy err
To hear thee speaking through the rosy air
Of morn and eve, and when no cloud may stir
In the calm noon; or solemn Night and fair,
Plies her grave task, and the stars wait on her?

III.

While the sun hangs dim and red

In the west,

Come and lean your wondrous head On my breast.

It is sweet, my Lillie dear,

By your side while night draws near

TO ALMA.

I.

AN anxious whisper steals unto my ear,

That thy young soul, so fresh and pure it be,

Is alien unto mine; that I in thee

No resonance shall find for thoughts austere ;
No glorious kinship in that loftier sphere
Where spirits meet and recognize their own.
And yet, beloved, from those depths unknown-
Those slumbering depths of silence which I fear
With my rude touch to stir- some shy sweet thought
Comes upward trembling, like a coral bright,
Which no bold eye its loveliness has taught,

Through pale green waters flashing its warm light!
Yet, wert thou shallow, love, the heaven's wide sweep
The shallow stream reflects, e'en as the deep.