A CRADLE SONG.

SLEEP, sleep, beauty bright,
Dreaming in the joys of night;
Sleep, sleep; in thy sleep
Little sorrows sit and weep.

Sweet babe, in thy face
Soft desires I can trace,
Secret joys and secret smiles,
Little pretty infant wiles.

As thy softest limbs I feel,
Smiles as of the morning steal
O'er thy cheek, and o'er thy breast
Where thy little heart doth rest.

Oh the cunning wiles that creep
In thy little heart asleep!
When thy little heart doth wake,
Then the dreadful light shall break.

THE SCHOOLBOY.

I LOVE to rise on a summer morn,
When birds are singing on every tree;
The distant huntsman winds his horn,
And the skylark sings with me:
O what sweet company!

But to go to school in a summer morn,— Oh! it drives all joy away;

Under a cruel eye outworn,

The little ones spend the day
In sighing and dismay.

Ah! then at times I drooping sit

And spend many an anxious hour; Nor in my book can I take delight, Nor sit in learning's bower,

Worn through with the dreary shower.

How can the bird that is born for joy
Sit in a cage and sing?

How can a child, when fears annoy,
But droop his tender wing,

And forget his youthful spring?

O father and mother, if buds are nipp'd,
And blossoms blown away;

And if the tender plants are stripp'd
Of their joy in the springing day,
By sorrow and care's dismay,-

How shall the summer arise in joy,

Or the summer fruits appear?

Or how shall we gather what griefs destroy, Or bless the mellowing year,

When the blasts of winter appear?

TO TIRZAH.

WHATE'ER is born of Mortal Birth]
Must be consumèd with the earth,
To rise from generation free:

Then what have I to do with thee?

The sexes sprang from shame and pride,
Blown in the morn, in evening died;
But mercy changed death into sleep;
The sexes rose to work and weep.

Thou, mother of my mortal part,
'With cruelty didst mould my heart,
And with false self-deceiving tears
Didst bind my nostrils, eyes, and ears,

Didst close my tongue in senseless clay,
And me to mortal life betray.

The death of Jesus set me free:

Then what have I to do with thee?

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