University of Virginia Library

IV.

[If those dear eyes that watch me now]

If those dear eyes that watch me now,
With looks that teach my heart content:
That smile which o'er thy placid brow
Spreads, with Delight in pure concént:
And that clear voice whose rise and fall
Altérnates, in a silver chime:
If these fair tokens false were all
That told the tale of fleeting Time—
I scarce should mark his swift career,
So little change hath o'er thee passed,
So much thy Present doth appear
Like all my Memory holds most dear,
When she recalls thy perfect Past!
Unchanged thou seem'st in mind and frame:
Thy sweet smile brightens still the same:
In thy fair face is nothing strange;
And when from out thy pure lips flow
Thy earnest words with grace, I know
Thy Wisdom hath not suffered change!
And so thy Presence, bland and glad,
Wherein no trace of change appears,
Proclaims not that this day will add
A fresh sheaf to thy garnered years!
But Time himself proclaims his power,
And will not pass unheeded by:
At every turn his ruins lie,
I track his steps at every door;
Or, musing with myself, I find
His signet borne by every thought,
From many a moral blemish wrought
By more of commerce with my kind;
Who am not armed, as thou in youth
To bear unhurt the brunt of Life,
To battle with the foes of Truth,
And issue scarless from the strife;
Not pure, as thou, to pass unscared,
Where Knaves and Fools infest the ways,
By their rank censure unimpaired,
And spotless from their ranker praise.
And thus the slow year, circling round,
Mars with no change thy soul serene,
While I, though changed, alas! am found
Far other than I should have been,
And only not at heart unsound,
Because thy love still keeps it green;
Oh! therefore, from that worst decay
To save me with Love's holiest dew,
Heaven guard thee, dear! and oft renew
Return of this thy natal day:
And teach me with each rolling year
That leaves us on a heartless earth,
To love thee so, that Love may bear
Fruits worthier of thy perfect worth;
And so, whatever ills betide,
Whatever storms about me lour,
Though broken by the bolts of Pride,
And scorched by Envy's lightning power,
I shall not perish in the blast,
But prosper while thou still art nigh,
By my pure love preserved, and by
My guardian Spirit saved at last.