Poems of home and country Also, Sacred and Miscellaneous Verse |
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TO SALLIE, ON HER EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY. |
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 | Poems of home and country |  |
TO SALLIE, ON HER EIGHTEENTH BIRTHDAY.
Spring, with its bright and cheerful hours,
Flies like the mist away;
But weaves around our fragrant bowers
The light of summer's ray.
Flies like the mist away;
But weaves around our fragrant bowers
The light of summer's ray.
And summer, with its brilliant beams,
Gives way to autumn's reign;
And every swelling garner teems
With heaps of golden grain.
Gives way to autumn's reign;
And every swelling garner teems
With heaps of golden grain.
So childhood, like the spring, retires,
That nobler youth may rise;
And youth to riper age aspires
And yearns for Paradise.
That nobler youth may rise;
And youth to riper age aspires
And yearns for Paradise.
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So life rolls on; each precious hour
Swells with the life to be,
And ripening years prepare the dower
Of immortality.
Swells with the life to be,
And ripening years prepare the dower
Of immortality.
Leave the glad memories of the past,
To holier calls respond;
Upward with joyful vigor haste,
The goal is still beyond.
To holier calls respond;
Upward with joyful vigor haste,
The goal is still beyond.
Passed is the limit that divides
Childhood from ripening life;
Go, see what work thy hand abides,
And dare the noble strife.
Childhood from ripening life;
Go, see what work thy hand abides,
And dare the noble strife.
God be thy guide,—His sheltering hand
Direct and guard thy way;
So shall life's promises expand
In fair, immortal day.
Direct and guard thy way;
So shall life's promises expand
In fair, immortal day.
October 18, 1856.
| Poems of home and country | |