Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
 | I, II, III. |
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MEMORIES. |
 | Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems |  |
MEMORIES.
Dear Memories! sweet might blowing flowers maintain,In my hushed spirit, your most gentle reign—
And ever ripen into glowing dreams,
For then the past-time brightly present seems,—
Charm me and cheat me as ye will, whilst I
Exchange all hope for shadowy Memory!
The Past at least is changeless, there at least
The restless flow of time and tide has ceased—
Whatever was, remains for ever there!
Its love must yet be love—its care still care—
Its constancy unchanged—its bliss unchecked,
Its truth unblasted—and its good unwrecked;
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While Memory lives—its lovely sway must last.
Come to my Soul—deep thoughts of other days,
And shut out all beside from its fixed gaze—
Old thoughts that hang and hang about the heart,
Leaves on a hollow stem, that ne'er depart—
But have a Life and Being of your own,
And fixed remain—though rudely stirr'd and blown,
I'the face of all Life's rough inclement winds,
Bound by some tie that close, and closer binds,
Remain for ever there!—till Death shall come
And call the weary and the lorn one home.
Such thoughts as these still ward despair's fell blow,
And 'mind us thus all is not ill below;
A freshness o'er life's feverish hours they bring,
And keep the Soul a quick and buoyant thing!—
They bid Life's worst and wintriest gloom depart,
And form a green Arcadia for the Heart—
The green Arcadia of the Heart are they,
'Tis shaded there, through fierce Life's scorching day!
| Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | |