Sooner the sunflower might forget The to waken When the first radiance lights the eastern hill, Than I, by daily thoughts of thee forsaken, Feel, as they kindle, no expanding thrill. Oft, when at night the deck I'm pacing lonely Or when I pause to watch some fulgent star, Will Contemplation be retracing only Thy form, and fly to greet thee, though afar. When storms unleashed, with fearful clangor sweeping, Drive our strained bark along the hollowed sea, When to the clouds the foam-topped waves are leaping, Even then I'll not forget, beloved one, thee! winds rise wildly, and thick clouds are rearing Their ebon flags, that hasten on the night, Farewell! The pilot leaves us; seaward gliding, Our brave ship dashes through the foamy swell; But Hope, forever faithful and abiding, I Hears distant welcomes in this last farewell! A dream of boyhood's season of delight; It flashed along the dim shapes of the past; And, as I mused upon its strange appeal, Thrilling me with emotions undefined, Old memories, bursting from Time's icy seal, Rushed, like sun-stricken fountains on my mind. Scenes where my lot was cast in life's young day; My favorite haunts, the shores, the ancient woods, Where, with my schoolmates, I was wont to stray; Green, sloping lawns, majestic soli. tudes All rose to view, more beautiful than then; They faded, and I wept-a child again! THE SPRING-TIME WILL RETURN. THE birds are mute, the bloom is fled, Cold, cold, the north winds blow; And radiant summer lieth dead Beneath a shroud of snow. Sweet summer! well may we regret Thy brief, too brief sojourn; But, while we grieve, we'll not forget, Her pennon twined around the taperThe spring-time will return! ing mast, And her loose sails like marble drapery gleaming. How, at an hour like this, the unruf fled mind Partakes the quiet that is shed around us! As if the Power that chained the impatient wind With the same fetter of repose had bound us! TROPICAL WEATHER. Now we're afloat upon the tropic sea: Here Summer holdeth a perpetual reign. How flash the waters in their bounding glee! The sky's soft purple is without a stain. Full in our wake the smooth, warm trade-winds blowing, To their unvarying goal still faithful run; And, as we steer, with sails before them flowing, Nearer the zenith daily climbs the sun, The startled flying-fish around us skim, Glossed like the humming-bird, with rainbow dyes; And, as they dip into the water's brim, Swift in pursuit the preying dolphin hies. All, all is fair; and gazing round, we feel Over the yielding sense the torrid languor steal. CUBA. WHAT Sounds arouse me from my slumbers light? "Land ho! all hands, ahoy!" -I'm on the deck: As she were moored to her dark shadow seeming, 'Tis early dawn: the day-star yet is bright; The cattle on a thousand hills Clip the sweet buds that grow The pebbles lie 'neath the sunny sky Rank from the soil enriched by herds Quiet forevermore; In dreams of everlasting peace But ugly, and rough, and jagged still, Sleeping long years below. To-day is but a structure built And Progress hews her temple-stones |