To SERENIA.

ADIEU! thou sweetest, gentlest friend,

Dear Sister of my heart, adieu!

But to the earth's remotest end

My kindest thoughts shall follow you.

O Mitio, every power exert

To mitigate the parting pang;

Through thee should sorrow reach her heart, 'Twould give to grief its bitterest twang.

If tost about with every wind,

The gusts of passion you obey,

And let the senses rule the mind, Then love and joy must die away.

Attend not to the siren song

That would allure in pleasure's guise;

Whilst thou art healthy, young and strong,

Pursue true pleasure where she lies.

Where true religion is the guide,

Integrity's her constant plan;

In such 'tis natural to confide,

The wise will honour such a man.

Wilt thou that nobler path pursue, That good may from thy conduct spring? Then heaven-born peace will dwell in And outward evils lose their spring.

The only parent's hope fulfil,
And dissipate her anxious fears;

On her long widow'd heart distil
Sweet comfort in declining years.
Farewell! farewell, cherubic boy!
Thy smiles may cheer a mother's heart,
And yield thy father purer joy
Than jovial clubs could e'er impart.

Let manly smiles his features grace
To hear thee prattling at his knee;
Paternal love his sinews brace,
And teach him to provide for thee.
Farewell, my friends! again farewell!
To bode of meeting is no crime,
The wisest mortal can't foretel
What's buried in the womb of time.

Still the same earth supports our feet;
One sun illumines all our eyes;

you,

Though we in person ne'er should meet, Our prayers may mingle as they rise.

From the same hand divine we all shall have* Whatever blessings to our lot may fall;

The same Redeemer died our souls to save, May his unspotted robe invest us all.

O may we learn a Saviour's worth to know, By feeling our own wants, since these are real, And timely to the great physician go, Whose skill alone the sin-sick soul can heal.

Ah! might my warmest wish acceptance find Before th' Eternal, this should be my prayer,

That all to whom I am by kindred join'd, Might in this free, this full salvation share.

The ties of nature form a close embrace, Around the human heart through life they twine;

But firmer far than these the ties of grace Which ever last, and may be call'd divine.

Where both are blended language cannot trace The streams of pleasure which of course must flow;

Did this extend to all the human race,

"Twould make a little Paradise below.

* The lines from this to the conclusion of the Poem are two syllables longer than those in the former part.

COMPOSED IN CHILDHOOD-MORNING

BRIGHT morning comes, adorn'd in all the

charms

Of sportive gaiety. What rapture warms This glowing breast! while feather'd warblers spring

From bough to bough, and in sweet concert sing.
Listen-how they unite their tuneful lays,

And seem to chant their glorious Maker's praise!
And should not man his grateful homage pay,
Who fills a more distinguish'd rank than they?
Is man the noblest of God's works below?
Sure then his praise in noblest strains should flow.
A reasonable soul he doth enjoy,

With the sweet hope of immortality.

D

EVENING.

EVENING appears array'd in modesty.
No dark'ning tempest clouds the azure sky.
All is serene and peaceful that appears,
Sober and mild, like the declining years
Ofa good man, who looks back on the path
Of well-spent days, then dares to think on death.
Death just approaching draws the scene, to close
His earthly pleasures and his earthly woes.
With heart serene he thinks upon the tomb,
As the sure place to which he soon must come;
Where he must lay his tottering body by,

And rob'd in goodness, dwell above the sky.
There will he praise and love him who was slain,
To purify from sin's polluting stain;

Who sinners brings to the divine abode ;

Presents them spotless at the throne of God.