Oh! surely in her lake-like brow,
And in her dark retiring eye,
Grace, Pity, Love and Virtue dwell,
With sweet Humility;

Ah! might I win that maiden's love,
The world and all its cares forgot-
The world?-her bosom should be mine-
How happy were my lot!

Thus did I commune with my heart,
And thus my tale of love I spoke,
When Aura, thou wert by my side,
Beneath the spreading oak.

How can I e'er my rapture tell,
When thou thy virgin love confest?
Or, how with maiden grace thou hid'st
Thy blushes in my breast?

Yet, with thy infant at thy feet,

Even now more dear and fair thou art,

Than when in that first fond embrace

I clasp'd thee to my heart.

For as the spring that leaps to life
Impetuous, from the mountain side,
Though calmer in the valley, rolls
A swifter, broader tide—

So is, and so shall be our love :

A stainless stream, bright, calm and free, Through flow'rets fair and waving woods, Descending to the sea!

What means the tear in Aura's eye-
Her quivering lip, and deep-drawn sigh
As ere the last note's murmuring
Had left the harp's yet trembling string,
Rising with meek and matron grace,
She clasp'd her Lord in fond embrace-
Shed back his curls of golden hair,
And kiss'd his eyes and forehead fair.

'Twas a tear of bliss, a sigh of love,

Pure as if breathed by the blest above;

A bliss so keen, so pure, so high,

To her 'twas almost agony.

"Twas the sweet child's hour of evening prayer,

And, kneeling by his parents there,

He lisp'd the words his mother taught,
With Love, and Peace, and Mercy fraught;
More dear, I well may deem, to Him
Who dwells above, that vesper hymn
Breathed from the lips of that simple child,
Who, guiltless, spoke to God and smil'd!
Than the prayer of him, whose faith severe,
Looks up to Heaven with gloomy fear.

Gone was the splendour of the west,
All rural sounds were hush'd to rest,
The dark'ning shadows deeply fell
Adown the winding wooded dell;

Fair Aura's arm in her Lord's was plac'd,

Their child the night-moths round them chas'd;

And thus, in holier happiness

Than minstrel's words may e'er express,

They left the lonely Waterfall,

And sought again their ancient Hall.

A VISION.

ON AURA'S BIRTH DAY.

I dreamt that on a boundless plain,
On a wild wint'ry night I stood,
All silent save the night-wind's strain,
Reposed the snowy solitude.

A lonely star was in the sky,

Soft streaming through the crystal air;

It showed the dangers I was nigh,
And snatched my spirit from despair.

Far o'er the glimmering waste behind,
I trace full many a devious path;
My weary wanderings!-oft I find
They've led me near the gulf of death.

Untrodden snows before me lie,
And by that star's befriending light,
A comely mansion struck my eye,
Far on the utmost verge of sight.

"Still radiant be thy place of rest! Be thy serene, celestial ray,

Oh! lovely star, for ever blest,

That thus dost guide my lonely way.”

Scarce risen from my knee, when lo'!
Those star-beams gather'd to a form,
Glanced from their sphere athwart the snow,
And stood beside me in the storm.

The softness, purity, and grace,

Breathed from her starry home on high, Played round her frame and o'er her face, And left its beam to light her eye.

A voice breathed through the brightening air,"Mortal! this spirit be thy guide—

These are the silent snows of Time,

And yonder Peace and Truth abide;

Y