University of Virginia Library


262

SORROW.

Led onward by the joyous ray,
I thought not of the coming sorrow;
Amid the brightness of to-day
I dreamed not of the darker morrow.
It was not till the tempest came
That I my bliss began to measure;
When burst the wasting thunder-flame,
'Twas then I knew my priceless treasure.
It smote into life's inmost core,
Each fibre of my being tearing;

263

Leaf-like, it tossed me o'er and o'er,
Then laid me down to die despairing.
It turned my garden to a waste;
Each stem was crushed, each flower was broken,
Its fragments scattered to the blast,
Its beauty gone without one token.