204

MARY'S DIRGE.

But not a night which ought to mar
Immortal spirits! Like a star,

Thy memory there may rise!
To such a radiant angel still;
Love's gentle mission to fulfil;
And for Grief's icy, sickening chill,
To waken Hope's ecstatic thrill,
With Faith's triumphant over ill,
In realms beyond the skies!

A POET'S MEMORIAL

OF A DEPARTED FRIEND.

THE modest violet, half concealed from sight,
But scattering odours round it-lovelier seems :
The spotless lily, by the moon's pale light,

Shows yet more beauteous in its silvery beams:

The skylark, viewless in heaven's arch above,
Appears unearthly music to impart :—
Each grace and blessing worthiest of our love
Eludes the eye-but more to touch the heart.

And such the charm of thy retiring worth,

Which shunned display, nor ever sought to roam Beyond the spot to which it owed its birth,

"True to the kindred points of heaven and home!"

206 MEMORIAL OF A DEPARTED FRIEND.

Oh! may the memory of that worth yet give

To its late earthly home a hallowing leaven; There in the spirits of survivors live,

And whisper comfort from thy home in heaven!

"JESUS CHRIST THE SAME YESTERDAY,

TO-DAY, AND FOR EVER!"

THE firmest friends may change,
The best beloved may leave us,
Familiar ones-grow strange,
Or death of all bereave us.

Where is the love undying?
The Friend who never fails?

In whom the heart, relying,

May trust-when grief assails!

Behold the Lamb! who beareth

Believers' sins away:

For such He ever careth

And now as yesterday!

ΤΟ ΑΝΝΑ

IN THE FIRST LEAF OF A COPY OF THE RELIQUARY.

NOT for its minstrel worth, do we,

Dear Anna, thus present to thee

Our unpretending tome;

But in the hope that thou mayest prize
Aught that is linked by slightest ties

Unto thy future home!

Beneath its roof, my gentle friend,

Most of these pages have been penned ;

And, to a heart like thine,

The spot to which they owe their birth,

May give them a far prouder worth

Than critics would assign.