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Art and Fashion

With other sketches, songs and poems. By Charles Swain
  
  

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249

WAITING FOR THE COUNTESS.

(FROM LANDSEER'S DRAWING OF LADY BLESSINGTON'S FAVOURITE HOUND.)

'Tis sweet to watch the morning break
O'er mountains bleak and bare,
To view the clouds, like vessels, take
The azure sea of air!
To watch morn's magic pencil touch
Each golden stream and grove;—
And sweet it is, when loving much,
To wait for her we love.
Man speaks of “friendship, faith, and truth,”
But oft his acts declare
His friendship is a dream of youth,
His faith a thing of air!
And if an honest heart on earth
Is really to be found,
'Tis not so oft in human worth
As in the worthier hound!

250

Oh! never knight to ladye bright,
Nor bard's impassion'd breath,
Nor cavalier in maiden's ear,
Ere seem'd more true to death
Than this half-reasoning, noble brute,
That puts Man's truth to shame;
This creature—eloquent though mute!—
And friend—in more than name!
Thou, loved as genius must be loved;
And famed as beauty's famed;
Admired wherever thou hast moved,
Renown'd wherever named;
Not one of all the friends thou'st found,
Whose words and looks were sweet,
Ere loved thee better than this hound
That waits thy coming feet!
Rank—station—beauty—what are all,
If all yet fail to win
A heart still true to friendship's call,
Still warm with love within?
Oh, Life is lone, and little worth,
Unless affection meet
A faithfulness like his on earth,
That waits thy coming feet!