University of Virginia Library

XXIII.

Now all is calm — a calm so dead
It falls with cold and heavy dread —
Such lingering sense of terror still,
When the wild storm hath blown its fill,
As presses on the shipman's soul,
That with the tempest's surging roll,
Was wrapt up to the utmost pole! —
Such as the peasant well may feel
After the solemn thunder-peal,
When, 'mid the wilds, the general still
Settles on wood, and mead, and hill;
And not a whisper of the breeze
Wakens the leaf of aspen trees;
And not a motion of the stream
Disturbs the silence of the dream,
That seems each object to invest,
As life suspended were in rest —
Such the suspension of their souls!
Husband and Mother — and Sire and Brother —
And while its frozen breath controls,
They gaze uncertain on each other,
As though they gazed on vacancy,
Where forms unreal met the eye;
Till 'gan the heart flow in the breast,
With fixed ice so late oppressed,
And to its natural glow returned,
And now with rising rapture burned;
The lines of memory now they trace,
And catch the extatical embrace,
Pouring all the rapt spirit forth
In joy, that bursts beyond the earth!
But chief the Infant shared the bliss,
That triumphed in the numerous kiss —
Her parents kissed her o'er and o'er,
With fervor never felt before —
And Edwy pressed her lip and cheek,
So sweetly innocent and meek —
And Almar, of his pride beguiled,
Hath blest his Arabella's Child!!