Descend relentlessly on those

Who, unprovoked by sinful thought,

Have thus disturbed the calm repose
That virtue brought.

Let every hair on either head

Attract the lightning's vivid flame,

And fright them from their anxious bed,

O'erwhelmed with shame.

Dispose the sun's concentric rays

To scorch the retina so far,

That darkness through their future days

Shall lend no star.

When wandering blindly to and fro,

Unpitied both by man and brute,

Let ridicule its poison throw,

And find them mute.

If haplessly they touch one blade

Of grass which Nature kindly rears,

Let it in turn their souls upbraid,

And mock their fears.

Let every thorn by which they pass,
Abhorrent of the wrong they do,

Avenge that injured blade of grass,
And goad them too.

Incite the stones that crowd their path To rise in judgment whilst they may, And pour on them increasing wrath From day to day.

Embittered thus their lives extend,

In justice to their flagrant sins,

And only let such torture end

Where hell begins!

A REMINISCENCE.

My love and I together grew

The fonder with increasing years,

And gloried that we never knew

The time of parting but in tears:

The bond of sympathy we shared

So well in every danger stood, That often in our hearts we dared The proud to rend it if they could.

But in awhile my love announced

A warning from the common foe, And soon attendant lips pronounced

Her cheek to wear a hectic glow : The remnant of her stainless life

Served only to augment my fears,

And doom me in a world of strife

To floods of agonizing tears.

A PLAYFUL ADDRESS

TO A FRIEND ON A VISIT IN THE COUNTRY.

IF pure unerring Wisdom trace,
Amid this varied scene of ours,
Some sweet resemblance to the grace
Of woman in the choicest flowers,

The pleasing task of seeking which
Of these productions that enrich
The clime with odour, form and hue,
Most nearly, then, approaches you,
Is one that might engage the pen
Of angels in their blest abode,
Or lift to heaven the thoughts of men
In quest of the celestial road,

Did not thy quick, translucent eye,
That permeates both earth and sky,

Though all surveying, far and near,

Dwell chiefly in this humbler sphere,

And shed its love-inspiring rays

On every face and every form,

Like Luna when she fondly plays

On glowing hearts to keep them warm.

This genial attribute of thine

Too plainly to mankind declares

That, though the gift of Love Divine,

It little of the heavenly shares,

And leaves thy eulogy to be

Inscribed on earth by none but me.

Fain would I search the cultured ground, And on the blissful theme repose,

If in such lovely spot were found

The fragrant heliotrope or rose,

Expressive of thy chaste desire

To share with one the seeming fire

That now thy panting bosom fills,
And lavishly o'er all distils.