424 THE BOY AND THE ANGEL. hen Gabriel, like a rainbow's birth, Spread his wings, and sank to earth; Entered, in flesh, the empty cell, Lived there, and played the craftsman well: An morning, evening, noon, and night, And from a boy to youth he grew The man matured, and fell away And ever o'er the trade he bent, (He did God's will; to him, all one God said, "A praise is in mine ear; "So sing old worlds, and so New worlds that from my footstool go. "Clearer loves sound other ways; Then forth sprang Gabriel's wings, off fell 'T was Easter Day; he flew to Rome, In the tiring-room, close by FROM EDWIN THE FAIR. 427 FROM EDWIN THE FAIR. — Taylor. THE wind, when first he rose and went abroad A HOME SONNET.- Hood. THE world is with me, and its many cares The shades of former and of future years Foreboding fancies and prophetic tears, Quelling a spirit that was once elate. Heavens! what a wilderness the earth appears, Where youth, and mirth, and health, are out of date! 428 TO A FRIEND AFTER THE LOSS OF A CHILD. But no a laugh of innocence and joy FROM HOURS WITH THE MUSES.-J. C. Prince. SABBATH! thou art my Ararat of life, TO A FRIEND AFTER THE LOSS OF A CHILD. WHEN on my ear your loss was knelled, Which once had quenched my bitter thirst; And I was fain to bear to you A portion of its mild relief, That it might be as cooling dew To steal some fever from your grief. After our child's untroubled breath Up to the Father took its way, TO A FRIEND AFTER THE LOSS OF A CHILD. 429 And on our home the shade of death And friends came round with us to weep Was told to us by one we love. They, in the valley's sheltering care, Soon crop their meadow's tender prime, And when the sod grows brown and bare, The shepherd strives to make them climb To any shelves of pasture green That hang along the mountain side, Where grass and flowers together lean, And down through mists the sunbeams glide. But nought can lure the timid thing Till in his arms their lambs he takes, And in those pastures lifted fair, More dewy soft than lowland mead, The shepherd drops his tender care, And sheep and lambs together feed. This parable, by nature breathed, 430 TO A FRIEND AFTER THE LOSS OF A CHILD. A blissful vision through the night Holding our little lamb asleep — |