Household Verses :: :: University of Virginia Library

Emma! 'tis a name to wake
]Poesy for its own sake:
Prior—when he dressed in rhyme
Better song of by-gone time,
Borrowing it his verse to aid,
Emma called his Nut-brown Maid.

But to features such as these,
Call their owner what you please,
All the magic of a name
Could award no added claim;
'Tis their highest to express
Childhood's simple loveliness.

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What should painter, graver give
Childhood's representative?
Eyes of mild and thoughtful tone,
Forehead—where no care is shown,
Cheeks just tinted from the rose,
Lips where lurking smiles repose!

Thus the poet would opine,
Maiden all unknown! of thine;
Fancy deems the likeness true,
Those who know thee vouch it, too:
More than this I would not ask
Mine to make a blissful task.

For a blissful task, I ween,
To thy Bard it aye hath been,
Thus brief intercourse to hold—
Not with hearts where love is cold,
But with one in being's prime,
Yet unchilled by care or crime.

151

Happy maiden! unto thee
Life a summer morn should be;
Innocence and joy the light,
Making all around thee bright;
Tears of transient sorrow, born
Pure as dew-drops on the thorn.

What to thee the world's turmoil?
Wealth's false splendour, Fashion's toil?
One kind kiss from dear mamma,
One bright smile from fond papa,
In thy guileless heart outweighs
All that worldlings prize, or praise.

Thou art all untaught as yet
Frigid rules of etiquette,
In whose heartless, formal school
Hearts are taught to throb by rule,
Heads—to think by Fashion's sway,
Tongues—her prompting to obey.

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Of philosophy like this,
Ignorance, sweet child, is bliss:
Be thy spirit wiser taught;
In each action, word, and thought
Keep that high prerogative
Innocence hath power to give.

By that yet unclouded brow,
Heaven itself is round thee now!
Thence thy deathless spirit's birth,
Though a sojourner on earth;
Thitherward it still should tend,
Heaven its origin, and end.

Dews that nourish morning flowers
Dry up in day's after hours;
Let not such an emblem be
Of what now should nourish thee;
These, if hived up in thy heart,
Shall not thence in haste depart.

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But, their influence appealing
To expanding thought and feeling,
These shall still, from day to day,
Prove thy sustenance and stay,
Like the manna which was given
Every morning fresh from heaven.