MISCELLANIES.

143

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

Spem retine spes una hominem nec morte relinquit.

CATO'S DISTICHS.

Grasp Hope: Hope e'en in death forsakes not man.

DEJECTION shades the face of day
Each golden vision fades away.
No more the balmy-breathing spring
Wafts health and transport on her wing;
No more with joy I spend the hours
And slumber in Arcadian bowers;
No more along the gladsome plain
I frolic with the piping swain;
Nor wandering by the stealing wave

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

Descends the night with all its gloom
And horror beckons from the tomb.
My days in museful darkness roll
And clouds sit heavy on my soul.
Ye hours of joy where are ye fled,
Ye airy sports which crown'd my head?
Why comes not peace with grey-ey'd morn
Nor when pale Cynthia fills her horn?
Why do my wanderings shun the light
And court the fairy-footed night?
Say flattering Hope where wanderest thou,
Where hast thou made thy dwelling now?
Dost thou with care-worn monarchs dwell
Or sleep'st thou in the Hermit's cell?
Or dost thou seek the Peasant's shed
To bless his crust to bless his bed?
Or dost thou o'er the Sailor boy
Wave thy light wings in wanton joy;
And when he climbs the top-mast high
Dart searching rapture from his eye?
Or dost thou warm the Lover's breast
And lull his busy thoughts to rest;
Present before his eager view
His chosen maid in colours true,
And whisper to his listening ear,

Mourn not, fond youth, cease every tear,

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

Dispel your sorrows and alarms

Anna shall meet your circling arms?
Where'e'er thou art Hope hither come
And make with me thy happy home,
Come with thy blue enraptur'd eye
Which spurns the earth but loves the sky,
Come with thy robes of silver hue
With sandals bath'd in morning dew,
With hair all streaming in the gale
With steps that scarcely kiss the vale,
Come and bring with thee along
Laughter, and Sport, and merry Song,
Such as most loves the Shepherd's reed
While graze his flocks the fragrant mead;
Come with thy fanning wings thro' air,
And banish hence the fiend Despair:

Let thy mild voice salute mine ear
And on thy bosom fall my tear.

Those thoughts which love the grave, repress,

And pillow on thine arms distress.

Gay Hope I know that cruel guile

Lurks in the magic of thy smile,

That thou oft whisperest peace to-morrow
To cheer the gloomy night of sorrow;
But when ascends the orb of day,

Thee and thy boon are flown away.

L

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

The wandering light which on the moor Leads on the sad bewildered boor,

Thro' bogs and brakes and darksome dell
Where death and wakeful terrors dwell,
Is like thy fair entrancing form,

Which smiles to peace, but beckons storm.
O look upon that pathless wild!
Where mourns the aged man his child,
Son of his years, his only care,

For whom he breath'd his fervent prayer,
For whom he toil'd the busy day

Till age had torn his locks away.

Look on that lovely maid who lies
The victim of unceasing sighs---
In thy bright smile her youth arose,
Thy cradling arms rock'd her repose;
But when an artful villain came
Prophaning Love's all gentle name,
Seducing smiles her bosom won,
She leant on Hope, and was undone--
Now outcast, by the tempest tost.
She mourns her peace for ever lost.

But tho' deception in thy smile
Come Hope and live with me awhile;
O come and cheer this dark abode

And tread with me this toilsome road,

ADDRESS TO HOPE.

Let me thy flattering offers share,
Come build me palaces in air;
Dress me in never-fading flowers,
Lead me amid o'ershadowing bowers,
Salute me with thine angel lay
Till I in transports melt away.
Bear me above this sluggish earth
Its low pursuits, its noisy mirth,
And let the music of the spheres

And hymning angels, meet mine ears.
One promise Hope which thou hast made
Shall never, never, never fade;

"Tis that which bids me look on high
To yon bright world above the sky,

Where God my maker reigns alone
And calls his children round the throne;
Then haste ye rolling years away,

Sink worlds and systems in decay;

Break thou bright day upon the night, When heaven shall open on my sight.