Is gathering round my heart, In gloom and tears, That will not, can not part, For long, long years. Oh! would that thought could die ; And memory Pass, like the night-wind's sigh, Away from me. There is a resting place, Cold, dark, and deep; Where grief shall leave no trace, And misery sleep. Would I were slumbering there, From life's sad dream; The tempest's cold, bleak air, My requiem. Lady! my harp's sad song Hath wing'd its flight; But still, its chords along, Murmurs my last 'good night! -The melody had ceased,-the harper gone; And, silent all, the waning night pass'd on. NIGHT IN THE WOODS. BY EPHRAIM PEABODY. "Through the openings in the leafy vaults looked down the stars from far above this world." MARY'S JOURNEY. The unfathomable cope of heaven! Through the narrow forest opening, Looks down its peaceful eye. The tranquil stars pass o'er me one by oneThe silver clouds rise up-float o'er-are gone. The forest pines which circle round Like dark towers at my side, But show the depths of the dim vault, Unsounded void! yet deepening whilst I gaze, Till the eye swims that through thy clear deep strays. The night is hushed like sleep; the roar The breeze is sleeping midst its leaves, The brook beneath its hill; On branch and leaf and in their gloomy shade, The silence of eternity is laid. The moving heavens !-the Spirit's power The music of the many spheres 'Tis sounding through the soul! The Vast! the Beautiful!-in mystery, Deep in the soul's abyss unseen they lie. Sea-heavens-ye settled hills that lift Like altars reared to God-the soul Is mightier than you,— Yea, gives you all your glory-gives the light, Which lifts you up from nothingness and night. Oh God! who breathed into the soul Oh may I ne'er defile with earth and sense BESIDE his path the beauteous Hudson rolled In silence, musingly 'Would it were thus With me. My spirit shares not now, as wont, Methinks there is some weight within, sinking It was a lowly room; And the stern heavy tread, that by the door And the fixed gaze marked that a wakeful dream Amid the bending trees; and the bright band Each thought, came rising up in peerless grace, At one dark thought. 'Twas not that he must die; |