SONGS WITHOUT WORDS.
I
Songs without words! Through forest leaves they quiver,
With softer cadence tune the torrent's roar,
They mingle whispers with the rippling river,
And sport in billows on the stormy shore.
II
Songs without words! How often have I sung them,
In the fresh noontime of my life's young day,
When hopes were free, as if kind Heaven had flung them,
Plenteous as daisies on the lap of May.
III
Songs without words! How often lonely musing,
Fann'd by the breath of morn or evening skies,
Have Joy and Music, mutely interfusing,
Throbb'd in my veins and sparkled in mine eyes.
IV
Songs without words! How oft in Love's pure gladness,
Her hand in mine, we've look'd sweet songs unsung,
Of deeper joy and more entrancing sadness
Than e'er found accents on a mortal tongue!
