University of Virginia Library

THE ORPHAN'S DREAM OF LOVE.

Oh! how my very heart could weep
To think that none will see nor know;
Love's fountain may be still when deep,
And silent, though it overflow.
But blossoms may unheeded grow,
Whose leaves the sweetest balm enfold,
And streams be noiseless in their flow
That wander over sands of gold.
O love! thou word that sums all bliss—
Thou that no language ever told—
Best gift of brighter worlds to this,—
They err, and oh! their hearts are cold,
Who hope to speak thee:—such would seem
A thing too little worth to prize,
And mine is an ideal dream
The world can never realize!
They find, whose spirits blend with mine,
Thy best interpreter a sigh;
Bring their wreath offering to the shrine,
And lay their hearts down silently.
There comes at times, on viewless wings,
And nestles in my heart, a bird—
Oh Heaven, I think—for oh! it sings
The sweetest songs I ever heard.
When first it came, 't was long ago,
For childhood's years were scarcely by,
Summer and evening time, I know,
For stars were floating in the sky.
With sunbeams on the hills at play,
And gathering moss and braiding flowers,
I had been out the long, long day
Till twilight came with dewy hours;
And treading carelessly along
The pathway, through the starlit glen,
I heard this sudden flow of song,
Which I had never heard till then.
I recked not of the time I stayed
Enraptured, so the melting lay
With sweetness filled the thickening shade;
But when at length I turned away
The stars had streaked with silver beams
The dusky mantle midnight wore,
And I was dreaming such sweet dreams
As I had never dreamed before!
I was an orphan—childhood's years
Had passed in heaviness of heart;
No second self had soothed my tears,
Or in my gladness bore a part.
But then—perchance the thought was weak,
Though vainly by the lips supprest,
For aught of which the heart can speak
Is never long a secret guest—
I thought that there might yet be won
What in the world is daily found,
“Something to love, to lean upon,
To clasp affection's tendrils round.”
O, if love's dreams be all so sweet
As those which then to me were given,
Two kindred spirits, when they meet,
Must surely taste the bliss of heaven!
It may be, why I scarcely know,
But so to me it never seemed,
It may be fancy made it so,
But as I wandered on, I dreamed
That everything I looked upon
Was full of loveliness and light;
The starry wreath that night had on
Before had never shone so bright.
And with such blessings in his path,
I marvelled man should ever sin—
Oh! earth a crowning radiance hath
When all is light and peace within!
But since that vision of the glen
Long weary years have o'er me flown,
And left me what they found me then,
Within the wide, wide world alone.