FAREWELL TO HIS WIFE.

203

Farewell to his Wife.

ARE thee well! and if forever,

FA

Still forever, fare thee well;

Even though unforgiving, never

'Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.

Would that breast were bared before thee
Where thy head so oft hath lain,
While that placid sleep came o'er thee
Which thou ne'er canst know again.

Would that breast by thee glanced over
Every inmost thought could show,
Then thou wouldst at last discover
'Twas not well to spurn it so.

Though the world for this commend thee-
Though it smile upon the blow,
E'en its praises must offend thee,
Founded on another's woe:

Though my many faults defaced me,
Could no other arm be found
Than the one which once embraced me,
To inflict a cureless wound?

Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not:
Love may sink by slow decay;
But, by sudden wrench, believe not
Hearts can thus be torn away:

Still thine own its life retaineth

Still must mine, though bleeding, beat; And the undying thought which paineth Is that we no more may meet.

These are words of deeper sorrow
Than the wail above the dead;
Both shall live, but every morrow
Wake us from a widowed bed.

And when thou wouldst solace gather,
When our child's first accents flow,
Wilt thou teach her to say "Father!"
Though his care she must forego?

When her little hands shall press thee,
When her lip to thine is pressed,

Think of him whose prayer shall bless thee,
Think of him thy love had blessed!

Should her lineaments resemble

Those thou never more may'st see, Then thy heart will softly tremble With a pulse yet true to me.

All my faults, perchance, thou knowest,
All my madness none can know;
All my hopes, where'er thou goest,—
Wither, yet with thee they go.

Every feeling hath been shaken;
Pride, which not a world could bow,
Bows to thee-by thee forsaken,
E'en my soul forsakes me now.

But 'tis done-all words are idle-
Words from me are vainer still;
Yet the thoughts we cannot bridle
Force their way without the will.

Fare thee well! thus disunited,
Torn from every nearer tie,

Seared in heart, and lone,and blighted,

More than this I scarce can die!

LORD BYRON.

WATCHING.

205

S

Watching.

LEEP, love, sleep!

The dusty day is done.

LO! from afar the freshening breezes sweep
Wide over groves of balm,

own from the towering palm,

In at the open casement cooling run,

And round thy lowly bed,

Thy bed of pain,

Bathing thy patient head,

Like grateful showers of rain,

They come;

While the white curtains, waving to and fro,
Fan the sick air;

And pityingly the shadows come and go,
With gentle human care,
Compassionate and dumb.

The dusty day is done,
The night begun ;

While prayerful watch I keep,

Sleep, love, sleep!

Is there no magic in the touch

Of fingers thou dost love so much?

Fain would they scatter poppies o'er thee now;

Or, with its mute caress,

The tremulous lip some soft nepenthe press

Upon thy weary lid and aching brow;

While prayerful watch I keep,

Sleep, love, sleep!

On the pagoda spire

The bells are swinging,

Their little golden circlet in a flutter

With tales the wooing winds have dared to utter,

Till all are ringing,

As if a choir

Of golden-nested birds in heaven were singing;

And with a lulling sound

The music floats around,

And drops like balm into the drowsy ear;
Commingling with the hum

Of the Sepoy's distant drum,

And lazy beetle ever droning near.
Sounds these of deepest silence born,
Like night made visible by morn;
So silent that I sometimes start
To hear the throbbings of my heart,
And watch, with shivering sense of pain,
To see thy pale lids lift again.

The lizard, with his mouse-like eyes,

Peeps from the mortise in surprise

At such strange quiet after day's harsh din;
Then boldly ventures out,

And looks about,

And with his hollow feet

Treads his small evening beat,

Darting upon his prey

In such a tricky, winsome sort of way,

His delicate marauding seems no sin.

And still the curtains swing,

But noiselessly;

The bells a melancholy murmur ring,

As tears were in the sky:

More heavily the shadows fall,

Like the black foldings of a pall,

Where juts the rough beam from the wall;

The candles flare

With fresher gusts of air;

The beetle's drone

Turns to a dirge-like, solitary moan;

Night deepens, and I sit, in cheerless doubt, alone.

EMILY C. JUDSON.

MY ANGEL GUIDE.

207

I

My Angel Guide.

GAZED down life's dim labyrinth,

A wildering maze to see,

Crossed o'er by many a tangled clue,

And wild as wild could be;

And as I gazed in doubt and dread,
An angel came to me.

I knew him for a heavenly guide,
I knew him even then,
Though meekly as a child he stood
Among the sons of men;

By his deep spirit loveliness
I knew him even then.

And as I leaned my weary head
Upon his proffered breast,
And scanned the peril-haunted wild
From out my place of rest,

I wondered if the shining ones
Of Eden were more blest.

For there was light within my soul,
Light on my peaceful way;

And all around the blue above

The clustering starlight lay;

And easterly I saw upreared
The pearly gates of day.

So, hand in hand we trod the wild,

My angel-love and I

His lifted wing all quivering

With tokens from the sky

Strange, my dull thought could not divine

'Twas lifted-but to fly!