POEMS.
37
TO A VALUED PRECEPTRESS.
Loved guide of our childhood thro' life's silver waters,
Ere yet its calm ripples to billows could change;
Ere yet we could picture the wild depths before us,
And bow to Fate's summons across them to range;
'Twas thou wert the beacon-light warning from danger,
And pointing the safe way by which thou hadst passed
Thro' thy sea of troubles, thy blasts of affliction,
And rested at peace from their terrors at last!
Faithful friend of our youth! thine hath still been the spirit
To cheer us while stemming the treacherous wave;
When crushed in Fate's tempest thy hand hath upheld us,
And raised the bright hopes which had else found their grave.
And now should the dark cloud o'er-shadow our passage,
Or Hope's sun illumine a future unknown,
We may turn to the same cheering smile to uphold us,
Or mourning may feel that we mourn not alone.
Ere yet its calm ripples to billows could change;
Ere yet we could picture the wild depths before us,
And bow to Fate's summons across them to range;
'Twas thou wert the beacon-light warning from danger,
And pointing the safe way by which thou hadst passed
Thro' thy sea of troubles, thy blasts of affliction,
And rested at peace from their terrors at last!
Faithful friend of our youth! thine hath still been the spirit
To cheer us while stemming the treacherous wave;
When crushed in Fate's tempest thy hand hath upheld us,
And raised the bright hopes which had else found their grave.
And now should the dark cloud o'er-shadow our passage,
Or Hope's sun illumine a future unknown,
We may turn to the same cheering smile to uphold us,
Or mourning may feel that we mourn not alone.
