Seven years of patience, and a late consent And then she was so pensive and so meek But he is gone, and all The fondest passages of wedded life And mutual fondling of their progeny, And hopes together felt, and prayers when both Of their two darlings, sinks in viewless night Thus ever in this world are joy and woe; In the quaint channels that are made by laughter. Jan. 28, 1843. AGNES. In an old house, a country dwelling, nigh With a warm purse well filled by industry His spouse was comely, stricken well in years; Still as a little timid mouse she sat ; I cannot say she had a speaking eye, For when my eye with hers would fain converse, She would begin her needle's task to ply, And, wanting work, the kitten would she nurse. Soon as she could, she unobserved withdrew, All pretty maids that are too young to woo, Years have gone by, her worthy father dead, When she beheld her elder sisters wed, And womanhood in her grew daily stronger? Or did she feel a warning in her heart, Thy spouse affianced waits for thee in heaven? I cannot tell, for I was far away, By what slow course of gracious discipline, But yet I trust she never knew the woe Of body's waste, that brings despair and dearth Unto the soul; that living death, so slow, That leaves to those that would yet would not go, No love of heaven, but weary hate of earth. Nay, better, loving dearly to the last Prayed yet, though feeling that her lot was cast, Like Jesus, that the cup might pass away. FAREWELL! HATH the vast ocean, that strange, humorous thing, That hath matured a pearl; let Ocean bring Hath the dead earth, dead now, but once alive Relics of life, or fated gems that strive To be their proper selves, and pant and swell And hath the air-the always gracious air- |