 | My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays |  |
27
TO GEORGE HENRY APTHORP.
My Brother! at youth's vernal hour,
Thine was beauty's transient flower;
My Brother! in life's summer day,
Thine is of mind, the enduring ray;
From blushing morn, to noon's decline,
Of soul and heart, the strength is thine,
Soul to sustain, and heart to cheer
The pilgrim's path of darkness here.
Thine was beauty's transient flower;
My Brother! in life's summer day,
Thine is of mind, the enduring ray;
From blushing morn, to noon's decline,
Of soul and heart, the strength is thine,
Soul to sustain, and heart to cheer
The pilgrim's path of darkness here.
To me thy deeds of kindness seem
Expressive as the patriarch's dream,
When to his lightly slumbering eyes,
Angels from earth were seen to rise
On steps celestial—bright and fair,
As hope had brought her bounties there,
While on his sense the vision grew,
The golden gate of heaven he knew:
Thus to the mourner's musing eyes,
A passage brightening to the skies
Is seen from earth—an angel's care
Unfolds the portal's blessing there.
Expressive as the patriarch's dream,
When to his lightly slumbering eyes,
Angels from earth were seen to rise
On steps celestial—bright and fair,
As hope had brought her bounties there,
While on his sense the vision grew,
The golden gate of heaven he knew:
28
A passage brightening to the skies
Is seen from earth—an angel's care
Unfolds the portal's blessing there.
| My Mind and its Thoughts, in Sketches, Fragments, and Essays | |