 | The poems of Mrs. Emma Catherine Embury |  |
208
LINES ON HEARING MY CHILDREN SING.
Those clear, ringing voices! how simple the spell
That sends my sad thoughts, prisoned, back to their cell!
Dark phantoms of ill cease around me to throng
While I list to the tones of my children's sweet song.
That sends my sad thoughts, prisoned, back to their cell!
Dark phantoms of ill cease around me to throng
While I list to the tones of my children's sweet song.
Not an impulse to-day in my chilled heart had stirred,
Yet how wildly it bounds to each innocent word!
The stream of affection seemed frozen for aye,
But already the ice chains are melting away.
Yet how wildly it bounds to each innocent word!
The stream of affection seemed frozen for aye,
But already the ice chains are melting away.
Those clear, ringing voices! my lone bosom feels
New hopes spring to life as the melody steals
On the calm evening breeze, and I hail it a token
Of joys yet to come, of sweet ties all unbroken.
New hopes spring to life as the melody steals
On the calm evening breeze, and I hail it a token
Of joys yet to come, of sweet ties all unbroken.
Alas! for the heart with its fond, foolish trust,
And its hopes that are born but to crumble to dust!
Full many a joy that my young heart once cherished,
Like violets in winter, have budded and perished.
And its hopes that are born but to crumble to dust!
Full many a joy that my young heart once cherished,
Like violets in winter, have budded and perished.
Those clear, ringing voices! I could not live on
'Mid the discords of earth if those voices were gone,
Yet I tremble when listening to echoes so glad,
For life's music must ever be dirge-like and sad.
'Mid the discords of earth if those voices were gone,
Yet I tremble when listening to echoes so glad,
For life's music must ever be dirge-like and sad.
| The poems of Mrs. Emma Catherine Embury | |