Poems (Toke)/As when the sunbeams, their bright noontide past

by Emma Toke

S when the sunbeams, their bright noontide past,
O'er the green earth a mellowed radiance cast,
And though around the lengthening shadows lie,
Still tinge with deeper glow the distant sky;
The wanderer pauses on some lofty ground,
And casts a long and lingering glance around;
Looks back once more upon the lengthened way
His feet have trod, since morning's earliest ray;
The hill-tops still with rosy sunshine bright,
The vales where deepening shadows close in night:
Then turning, muses o'er his path to come,
Now dim with twilight, veiled in misty gloom,
And sees with beating heart and glistening eye,
His distant home against the evening sky;—

So, Dearest! when on days like this we cast
One lingering look upon the chequered past,
Yet race again the pathway of long years,
The scenes together shared, the smiles, the tears,
That still with sunshine light departed hours,
Or fall like dew on early faded flowers;
Wilt thou not bless with me the joyful day
That gave to each another earthly stay,
And own that wedded love's mysterious power
Can cheer the darkest, light the brightest hour?
God's best and choicest blessings rest on thee,
Beloved husband! may thy pathway be
Still calm and peaceful, if not bright as yore;
And though around us clouds, as oft before,
Shall seem to gather, yet may light from high
Show us our home against the evening sky,
And lead both us, and all our cherished band,
Till one by one we reach that better land,
And joyful hear the voice that bids us come,
The lost to meet, the loved to welcome home.

E.

October 6, 1859.