Page:Poems Cook.djvu/93

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GRATITUDE.
Thou comest to dry the mourner's eye,
That, wakeful, is ever dim;
To hush for awhile the grieving sigh,
And give strength to the wearied limb.

Hail to thy sceptre, Ethiop queen!
Fair mercy marks thy reign;
For the careworn breast may take its rest,
And the slave forget his chain.


GRATITUDE.
The hound will fawn on any one
That greets him with a kind caress;
The flower will turn towards the sun,
That nurtures it in loveliness.

The drooping bird with frozen wing,
That feeds in winter at your sill,
Will trim his glossy plumes in spring,
And perch about your window still.

The grazing steed will mark the voice
That rules him with a gentle word;
And we may see the brute rejoice,
As though he loved the tones he heard.

I've taught the speckled frog to leap
At twilight for the crumbs I've spread;
I've lured the fawn till it would keep
Beside me, crouching, bound, and led.

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