poems.
83
A trustful look beams from her gentle eyes;
And in low tones the faithful maid replies:
'The stream from marble founts may sound as sweet;
Give me the free bright stream beneath our feet.
I do not want the love, the song, of art;
But thine,—the music of a guileless heart.
Oh, Henri, trust me still, and deem me true;
True to mine early vow, still true to you;
And when the summer sun renews the flowers,
They shall adorn a cottage which is ours.
And in low tones the faithful maid replies:
'The stream from marble founts may sound as sweet;
Give me the free bright stream beneath our feet.
I do not want the love, the song, of art;
But thine,—the music of a guileless heart.
Oh, Henri, trust me still, and deem me true;
True to mine early vow, still true to you;
And when the summer sun renews the flowers,
They shall adorn a cottage which is ours.
Oh, hour of bliss when love and hope's soft light
Makes the sweet present and the future bright!
Blest are those happy hours of love and trust;
But storms may bear the fairest flow'rs to dust.
O'er purest joy may sin's dark power be driv'n,
Yet, broken here, it lives again in heaven.
But dark, and wild, and fearful is the stroke
When trusting hearts are in a moment broke.
Then e'en the hope that sheds its light afar
Is but, alas, a cold and distant star!
As spreads the sudden night o'er tropic isles,
Brilliant in all their verdure, so descend
The storms of sorrow where bliss softly smiles,
And naught is seen the light of hope to lend!
Makes the sweet present and the future bright!
Blest are those happy hours of love and trust;
But storms may bear the fairest flow'rs to dust.
O'er purest joy may sin's dark power be driv'n,
Yet, broken here, it lives again in heaven.
But dark, and wild, and fearful is the stroke
When trusting hearts are in a moment broke.
Then e'en the hope that sheds its light afar
Is but, alas, a cold and distant star!
As spreads the sudden night o'er tropic isles,
Brilliant in all their verdure, so descend
The storms of sorrow where bliss softly smiles,
And naught is seen the light of hope to lend!
