THE WIDOW

ΤΟ

HER HOUR-GLASS.

COME, friend, I'll turn thee up again:
Companion of the lonely hour!
Spring thirty times hath fed with rain
And cloth'd with leaves my humble bower,
Since thou hast stood

In frame of wood,

On chest or window by my side:
At every birth still thou wert near,
Still spoke thine admonitions clear,—
And, when my husband died.

I've often watch'd thy streaming sand,
And seen the growing mountain rise,
And often found Life's hopes to stand
On props as weak in Wisdom's eyes:
Its conic crown

Still sliding down,

Again heap'd up, then down again;
The sand above more hollow grew,
Like days and years still filt'ring through,
And mingling joy and pain.

While thus I spin and sometimes sing,
(For now and then my heart will glow)
Thou measur'st Time's expanding wing:
By thee the noontide hour I know:

Though silent thou,
Still shalt thou flow,

And jog along thy destin'd way:
But when I glean the sultry fields,
When earth her yellow harvest yields,
Thou gett'st a holiday.

Steady as truth, on either end
Thy daily task performing well,
Thou'rt meditation's constant friend,
And strik'st the heart without a bell :
Come, lovely May !

Thy lengthen'd day

Shall gild once more my native plain;
Curl inward here, sweet woodbine flow'r
'Companion of the lonely hour,
I'll turn thee up again.

'O WINDS, howl not so long and loud; Nor with your vengeance arm the snow: Bear hence each heavy-loaded cloud;

And let the twinkling star-beams glow.

'Now sweeping floods rush down the slope,
Wide scattering ruin.-Stars, shine soon!
No other light my Love can hope:
Midnight will want the joyous Moon.

O guardian Spirits!-Ye that dwell
Where woods, and pits, and hollow ways,
The lone night-trav'ller's fancy swell
With fearful tales, of older days,-

Press round him :-guide his willing steed
Through darkness, dangers, currents, snows;
Wait where, from shelt'ring thickets freed,
The dreary heath's rude whirlwind blows.

From darkness rushing o'er his way,
The thorn's white load it bears on high!
Where the short furze all shrouded lay,

Mounts the dried grass ;-earth's bosom dry.

Then o'er the hill with furious sweep

It rends the elevated tree

Sure-footed beast thy road thou❜lt keep :
Nor storm nor darkness startles thee!

'O blest assurance, (trusty steed,)

To thee the buried road is known; Home, all the spur thy footsteps need, When loose the frozen rein is thrown.

'Between the roaring blasts that shake The naked elder at the door,

Though not one prattler to me speak,

Their sleeping sighs delight me more.

'Sound is their rest :-they little know What pain, what cold, their Father feels; But dream, perhaps, they see him now, While each the promis'd orange peels

'Would it were so !-the fire burns bright, And on the warming trencher gleams; In Expectation's raptur'd sight

How precious his arrival seems!

'I'll look abroad !-'tis piercing cold!-
How the bleak wind assails his breast!
Yet some faint light mine eyes behold.
The storm is verging o'er the west.

'There shines a star!-O welcome sight!Through the thin vapours bright'ning still!

Yet, 'twas beneath the fairest night

The murd❜rer stain'd yon lonely hill.

'Mercy, kind Heaven! such thoughts dispel ! No voice, no footstep can I hear! (Where night and silence brooding dwell, Spreads thy cold reign, heart-chilling Fear.)

'Distressing hour! uncertain fate!

O Mercy, Mercy, guide him home!—
Hark! then I heard the distant gate,-
Repeat it, Echo; quickly, come!

'One minute now will ease my fears-
Or, still more wretched must I be?
No surely Heaven has spar'd our tears:
I see him, cloth'd in snow ;-'tis he.-

'Where have you stay'd? put down your load. How have you borne the storm, the cold? What horrors did I not forbode

That beast is worth its weight in gold.'

Thus spoke the joyful wife ;-then ran
And hid in grateful steams her head:
Dapple was hous'd, the hungry man

With joy glanc'd o'er the children's bed.

'What, all asleep!-so best; he cried :
'O what a night I've travell'd through!
Unseen, unheard, I might have died;

But Heaven has brought me safe to you.

'Dear partner of my nights and days,

That smile becomes thee !-Let us then Learn, though mishap may cross our ways, It is not ours to reckon when.'