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An animal delight though dim!
'Tis all that now remains for him!
I looked, I scanned her o'er and o'er;
The more I looked I wondered more:
When suddenly I seemed to espy
A trouble in her strong black eye;
A remnant of uneasy light,
A flash of something over-bright!
And soon she made this matter plain;
And told me, in a thoughtful strain,
That she had borne a heavy yoke,
Been stricken by a twofold stroke;
Ill health of body; and had pined
Beneath worse ailments of the mind.
So be it!—but let praise ascend
To Him who is our Lord and Friend!
Who from disease and suffering
Hath called for thee a second Spring;
Repaid thee for that sore distress
By no untimely joyousness;
Which makes of thine a blissful state;
And cheers thy melancholy Mate!
