52

TO LAURA.

By the strong spirit's discipline,
By the fierce wrong forgiven,
By all that wrings the heart of sin,
Is woman won to heaven.

"Her lot is on thee," lovely child-
God keep thy spirit undefiled!

I fear thy gentle loveliness,
Thy witching tone and air,
Thine eye's beseeching earnestness,
May be to thee a snare.

The silver stars may purely shine,

The waters taintless flow

But they who kneel at woman's shrine
Breathe on it as they bow-

Ye may fling back the gift again,
But the crush'd flower will leave a stain.

What shall preserve thee, beautiful child?
Keep thee as thou art now?

Bring thee, a spirit undefiled,
At God's pure throne to bow?
The world is but a broken reed,
And life grows early dim-
Who shall be near thee in thy need,

To lead thee up-to Him?

He, who himself was "undefiled:"

With him we trust thee, beautiful child!

WILLIS.

A MOTHERS WISH.

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33

A MOTHERS WISH.

WHILE two sweet, stainless springs alone
Have swept with downy plume thy brow,
Child of my love! at Bounty's throne
For thee I breathe an ardent vow.

I ask not Beauty's dazzling dower,
Though well thine eye's reflective beam
Glows with the promise of a power,
Own'd in thy father's heart supreme.

I ask no plumed and jewelled crown,

Where rank and wealth their moment blaze; No transient meed of vain renown,

No length of perishable days.

No! I entreat no mortal boon!

No joys that pass with passing years;
Powerless, amid their warmest noon,
To dry affliction's latest tears.

I supplicate enlightening grace

To guide thy feet in wisdom's way,
And strength her heavenward steps to trace
Tnrough twilight to the perfect day.

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A MOTHERS

WISH.

May cold distrust and slighted love
Ne'er break thy calm and pure repose;
And far from thee kind Heaven remove
Alike thy father's faults and woes.

Float peacefully along the tide,

Till, all secure, thy spirit shine
In realms where souls alone abide,
Serene and innocent as thine.

REV. HENRY THOMPSON.

THE BUTTERFLY.

55

THE BUTTERFLY.

THE shades of night at distance fled,
The air was calm, the wind was still;
And slow the slanting sun-beain spread

O'er wood and lawn, o'er heath and hill.

From floating clouds of pearly hue

Fell, in light drops, the recent shower,
That hung, like gems of morning dew,
On every tree and every flower.

When, bursting forth to life and light
The offspring of delighted May,
The butterfly, on pinions bright,

Launched in full splendor on the day!

Her slender form, ethereal, light,

Her velvet-textured wings infold,

With all the rainbow's colors bright,

And dropt with spots of burnished gold

Trembling with joy, awhile she stood,
And felt the sun's enlivening ray,
Drank from the breeze the vital flood,
And wondered at her plumage gay.

And balanced oft her broidered wings,
Through fields of air prepared to sail ;

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56

THE BUTTERFLY.

Then on her venturous journey springs,
And floats along the vernal gale.

* * * * * * * *

But hark! while thus I musing stand,
Swells on the gale an airy note,

And, breathing from a viewless band,
Soft, silvery tones around me float:-

"Shall the poor worm that shocks thy sight, The humblest form in Nature's train,

Thus rise again to life and light,

And yet the emblem teach in vain ?

"And shalt thou, numbered with the dead,
No happier state of being know?
And shall no future morrow shed

On thee a beam of brighter glow?

"Is this the bound of power divine-
To animate an insect frame?
Or may not He who moulded thine
Relume at will the vital flame?

"Go, mortal! in thy reptile state,

Enough to know to thee is given;

Go, and the joyful truth relate,

Frail child of earth, high heir to heaven!"

ROSCOE.