 | The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey |  |
A Christian moral—to the pious mind
All things present one—may be found e'en here.
Adversity, like that pale wreath of snow,
Falls on the youthful heart, a seeming load
Of deadly pressure, crushing its young hopes;
But seeming such, for after certain space
Continuing there, and if it finds the soil
Not wholly sterile, to the frozen mass
Of its own latent virtues it imparts
A fertilising warmth, that penetrates
The surface of obdurate worldliness.
Then from the barren waste, no longer such,
Upspring a thousand amaranthine flowers
“Whose fragrance smells to heaven.” Desires chastised,
Enlarged affections, tender charities,
Long-suffering mercy, and the snowdrop buds
Of heavenly meekness:—These, and thousands more
As beautiful, as kindly, are called forth,
Adversity! beneath thy fostering shade.
All things present one—may be found e'en here.
Adversity, like that pale wreath of snow,
Falls on the youthful heart, a seeming load
Of deadly pressure, crushing its young hopes;
But seeming such, for after certain space
Continuing there, and if it finds the soil
Not wholly sterile, to the frozen mass
Of its own latent virtues it imparts
A fertilising warmth, that penetrates
The surface of obdurate worldliness.
Then from the barren waste, no longer such,
Upspring a thousand amaranthine flowers
“Whose fragrance smells to heaven.” Desires chastised,
28
Long-suffering mercy, and the snowdrop buds
Of heavenly meekness:—These, and thousands more
As beautiful, as kindly, are called forth,
Adversity! beneath thy fostering shade.
| The Poetical Works of Caroline Bowles Southey | |