Days and Hours :: :: University of Virginia Library

The Winds have hush'd their wings,
The merry bells are still,
No more the linnet sings
On the hill;
But tender maidens linger with soft eyes
Under the dim gleam of a throbbing star,
Then close their lattices with low sweet sighs,
Light as the dewless air.

With glittering locks, like Summer, he descends
'Mid courteous aspects—flatterers, feers, and friends;
Brothers and Uncles on his footsteps wait,
Aunts, Sisters, Cousins, that must bow to Fate;
She takes their forced welcome, and their wiles
For her own Truth, and lifts her head, and smiles;
They shall not change that Truth by any art,
Oh! may her love change them before they part.

The minstrels wait them at the palacegate,
She hears the flood, and sees the flash of State;
For all the mirth, the tumult, and the song,
Her fond thoughts follow the departing throng;
She turns away, her eyes are dim with tears,
Her mother's blessing lingers in her ears,
‘Bless thee, my Child’—the music is unheard,
Her heart grows strong on that remember'd word.

Again in dreams I heard the Marriage bells
Waving from far sweet welcomes and farewells;
And Alleluias from the Deep I heard,
And songs of star-brow'd Seraphim insphered,
That ebb'd unto that Sea without a shore,
Leaving vast awe and silence to adore;
But still, methinks, I hear the dying strain—
The crooked straight, and the rough places plain!’