Page:Poems Angier.djvu/181

With timid gaze and folded wing,
 It paused, then soared away;
In vain we sought to track its course,
 In vain we bade it stay.

Onward and upward, still it flew,
 Till not a speck was seen;
To tell that in the vault of blue,
 Its graceful form had been.

I know not if the thought be wrong,
 But it hath seemed to me,
That some meek herald from the skies,
 That gentle bird might be:

To teach us if to innocence,
 Our days on earth are given;
We too may plume our spirit's wings,
 And take our flight for heaven.

The memory of that Sabbath eve,
 That quiet, sunset scene;
Did on my heart an impress leave,
 From which this truth I glean.

That Nature's simplest lessons tend
 To show some moral plain;
For, on the page that God bath penned,
 No line is writ in vain.