University of Virginia Library

WISHES.

ANNA.
I wish I was a small bird,
Among the leaves to dwell,
To scale the sky in gladness
Or seek the lonely dell.
My matin song should wake amid
The chorus of the earth,
And my vesper hymn ring gladly
The trill of careless mirth.

ELLEN.
I wish I was a floweret
To blossom in the grove,
I'd spread my opening leaflets
Among the plants I love.
No hand would roughly cull me
As I looked up to the sky,
I silently should ope to life,
And quietly should die.

MARY.
I wish I was a gold-fish
To seek the sunny wave,
To part the gentle ripple,
And amid its coolness lave.
I would glide alone delighted
Amid the coral way,
And when night came on in softness
Beneath the star-beam play.

MOTHER.
Hush, hush, romantic prattlers,
You know not what you say,
When soul, the crown of mortals.
You would lightly throw away.
What is the songster's warble,
Or the floweret's blush refin'd
To the noble thought of Deity
Within your opening mind?