So delicate and fair, You must not breathe the air, Yet when the soft winds fling And the sweet birds have come, My Helen at my home. TO ARIANA. I loved you when a little child, Ariana; You looked on me and sweetly smiled, Ariana, When you were but a baby mild; Now you are grown up tall and wild, Ariana, And are by childhood's sports beguiled, Ariana. O, brightly glide the hours away, Ariana, And full of frolic and of play, Ariana, Is all you do and all you say ; Your heart is light and you are gay, Ariana, And now is your life's month of May, Ariana. O, be thus ever glad and fair, Ariana, This life of yours; nor woe, nor care, Ariana, Nor wicked spirits ever dare To give to you a saddened air, Ariana, And your sweet face or heart impair, Ariana. HEAVEN. Is the spirit-land in the bending sky, Will its bliss be found in those shining ways, That are pouring their glories down From countless millions of starry rays; Is there the eternal crown? 'Tis not in the paths of the clouded sky, Nor in azure depths unknown to the eye, It is found in the robe of holiness, in heart, "T is found at the holy shrine of prayer, In the peace, the world has not given; 'Tis found in the spirit that waits for us there, THE PRESENCE OF GOD IS HEAVEN. CHILDREN IN HEAVEN. My Lord hath need of these flowerets gay," The Reaper said and smiled; "Dear tokens of the earth are they, Where he was once a child." In the broad fields of heaven, Myriads of beauteous spirits, They sing of earth and heaven; In thanks and praises unto Him, Who called them to the skies. |