THE STRANGER'S GIFT. I FOUND far culled from fragrant field and grove Each flower that makes our Spring a welcome guest; In one sweet bond of brotherhood inwove An osier band their leafy stalks compressed; Now oft I grieve to meet them on the lawn, THY BEAUTY FADES. THY beauty fades and with it too my love, Crowning each rose, though rooted on decay, From virtue's changeless bloom that time and death defies. BEAUTY. I GAZED upon thy face,-and beating life I was not, save it were a thought of thee, THE WIND-FLOWER. THOU lookest up with meek confiding eye Thee will I seek beside the stony wall, And in thy trust with childlike heart would share, O'erjoyed that in thy early leaves I find A lesson taught by him who loved all human kind. THE ROBIN. THOU need'st not flutter from thy half-built nest, And the light wings of heart-ascending prayer Had learned that Heaven is pleased thy simple joys to share. |