 | [Poems by Hoffman in] Charles Fenno Hoffman |  |
291
TO ---
Thy cheek is pale! Has feeling thereOne moment marked the hue of care?
Can care itself in secret prey
And steal thy youthful bloom away?
Oh no! that mien can never hide
Suppressed emotion's swelling tide—
Tis far too cold, too calm to cover
A generous suffering for another—
And though consuming care could not,
To revel, choose a lovelier spot,
In features more divine—
I will not think his wasting blight
Thus early, can remorseless light
On such a heart as thine—
Thy gentle bosom ne'er could know,
The havoc made by stormy woe;
In sterner hearts alone appears
In lapse of hours, the wreck of years;
And only such can still endure
The wounds which Death alone can cure—
The paleness then upon thy cheek
Does not the silent waste bespeak
Of Health or Hope within,
But thought has left a transient place,
A lighter mood will soon efface—
A cloud that will a moment stay,
Then pass like woman's love away,
As if it ne'er had been.
Caspar
| [Poems by Hoffman in] Charles Fenno Hoffman | |