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WHAT IS THE SUNSHINE OF THE HEART?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


136

WHAT IS THE SUNSHINE OF THE HEART?

I

What is the sunshine of the heart?
'Tis pictured on the summer sky;
Our happiness is shown in part
Mid fields and flowers of beauteous dye.

II

Our cares—oh! they are passing clouds
That for a space obscure the light,—
The nightly sleep, which only shrouds,
Not dims the morning beams so bright.

III

Our tears are but the falling leaves
Which Autumn scatters round our bowers,
Soon—soon forgotten as the trees
Bear promise of the springtide flowers.

137

IV

But the heart's deeper sorrows shoot
Their leaves within themselves—and grow—
Alike the stem the cankered root;—
While the dull sap flows downward—slow—

V

There nourishes the hidden grief,
Within its bare and withering form;
And stunted stands, in sad relief,
Amid the desert's fiercest storm.