The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed With a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge. Fourth Edition. In Two Volumes |
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 | The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed |  |
394
TO HELEN
WITH SOUTHEY'S POEMS.
A happy and a holy day
Is this alike to soul and sight;
With cheerful love and joyful lay
Would I, dear Helen, greet its light.
Is this alike to soul and sight;
With cheerful love and joyful lay
Would I, dear Helen, greet its light.
But vain the purpose—very vain!
I cannot play the minstrel's part,
When recent care and present pain
Untune the lyre, unnerve the heart.
I cannot play the minstrel's part,
When recent care and present pain
Untune the lyre, unnerve the heart.
Yet prize these tomes of golden rhyme;
And let them tell you, in far years,
When faint the record traced by Time
Of brightest smiles or saddest tears,
And let them tell you, in far years,
When faint the record traced by Time
Of brightest smiles or saddest tears,
As sunward rose the Persian's prayer,
Though clouds might dim the votary's view,
So still, through doubt and grief and care,
My spirit, Helen, turned to you.
Though clouds might dim the votary's view,
So still, through doubt and grief and care,
My spirit, Helen, turned to you.
July 7, 1838.
| The Poems of Winthrop Mackworth Praed | |