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FINDEN'S TABLEAUX, 1837

 

TO A FRIEND.

Where could the heart that asked a gift on love's sweet shrine to place,
Seek for a lovelier gem than this, the offering to grace?
Genius its mighty voice has raised, a fitting lay to swell,
And Art pours forth its richest gems from out its treasure cell.

Here meet a mingling multitude from many a distant strand,
The gifted and the beautiful, the mighty of the land.
And as a shadow, blending with joy's rich and glorious ray,
The lowly and the sorrowful tread here their weary way.

We gaze on Georgia's meek-eyed slave, the Houri of the East,
Whose lofty brow and noble mien might grace a royal feast;
And here, with jeweled rosary, and eye upraised in prayer,
Sweet Florence waits on bended knee, her cloistered home to share.

She, Persia's proud Sultana, mourns her sad though brilliant fate,
And yearns to.tread that blessed home, by her made desolate;