Page:Poems Howard.djvu/30

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24
POEMS.
My secret thoughts oft cling around
One whom true honor long hath crowned
Whose noble heart, by chance I found,
My devious way pursuing;
From whose right hand, where'er it goes,
True bounty, like a river, flows;
And still, the prudent left hand knows
Not what the right is doing.

Again I wonder—till I fain
Believe the picture in my brain,
That fades but to return again,
Can surely be no other
Than One whom all unite to praise;
Who searches out life's thorny ways,
And to each fainting heart displays
The kindness of a brother.

Thus every day I cogitate,
With anxious heart, and longing, wait
To know the friend whom happy Fate
To me hath kindly given;
But, if my hope I must resign,
And may not know, or take in mine
The hand that gives—so near divine—
It will be known in Heaven.