University of Virginia Library


324

SUNRISE THOUGHTS AT THE CLOSE OF A BALL.

Morn in the East! How coldly fair
It breaks upon my fever'd eye!
How chides the calm and dewy air!
How chides the pure and pearly sky!
The stars melt in a brighter fire—
The dew, in sunshine, leaves the flowers—
They, from their watch, in light retire,
While we, in sadness, pass from ours.
I turn from the rebuking morn,—
The cold gray sky, and fading star,—
And listen to the harp and horn,
And see the waltzers near and far—
The lamps and flowers are bright as yet,
And lips beneath more bright than they,—
How can a scene so fair beget
The mournful thoughts we bear away!
'Tis something that thou are not here,
Sweet lover of my lightest word!
'Tis something that my mother's tear
By these forgetful hours is stirr'd!
But I have long a loiterer been
In haunts where Joy is said to be,
And though with Peace I enter in,
The nymph comes never forth with me!