 | Small Tableaux |  |
43
LITTLE SAMUEL,
Or Light and Gloom by the Fireside.
These changes at our weather-wisdom mock;But yesterday, the lord of all the year
Upon the front of this white marble clock
Sat like a star of honour, keen and clear,
Small as a spark: to-day, the mantelshelf
And time-piece mirror not his living beams;
Nought but wan window-lights and pallid gleams,
Where burned, in miniature, the Sun himself!
Then frost, now cloudy thaw. In gilded coat
Above the clock, the infant Samuel kneels;
In shine or shade, or when the thunder peals,
He lifts his praying hands and murmurs not:
Oh! may such holy temper be my lot,
Whatever mood each passing day reveals!
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