Page:Poems Angier.djvu/63

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EPITHALAMIUM.
Cloudless ray and carol gay
Welcomed in our wedding-day;
Calm life's ocean spread before us;
Benedicite, was the chorus
As we sped our onward way.

Skilful pilot, prosperous gale,
Ne'er was rent the silken sail;
For one breath hath fanned it ever,
Bark thus borne becalmed is never;
The breeze true love—this cannot fail.

Content the name we early gave
To our frail craft, which Time's rough wave
Hath ploughed for years with steady keel;
And now, though age doth o'er us steal,
We shrink not, though the tempest rave.

For Death, with cold, yet friendly hand,
But steers us to a pleasant land,
The port of Peace, called Heaven!
Hail to the storm, if there we're driven,
To furl our sail on that bright strand.