THE DEATH-BED. WE watch'd her breathing thro' the night, As in her breast the wave of life So silently we seem'd to speak, So slowly mov'd about, As we had lent her half our powers To eke her living out. Our very hopes belied our fears, Our fears our hopes belied— We thought her dying when she slept, For when the morn came dim and sad, And chill with early showers, Her quiet eyelids clos'd-she had Another morn than ours. TO MY DAUGHTER. ON HER BIRTHDAY. DEAR Fanny! nine long years ago, The landscape smil'd; Whilst low'd the newly-waken'd herds Sweet as the early song of birds, I heard those first, delightful words, "Thou hast a child! Along with that uprising dew Tears glisten'd in my eyes, though few, To hail a dawning quite as new To me, as Time : It was not sorrow-not annoy But like a happy maid, though coy, With grief-like welcome, even Joy So may'st thou live, dear! many years, In all the bliss that life endears, Not without smiles, nor yet from tears Too strictly kept : When first thy infant littleness I folded in my fond caress, The greatest proof of happiness Was this I wept. Sept., 1389. LINES ON SEEING MY WIFE AND TWO CHILDREN SLEEPING IN THE SAME CHAMBER. AND has the earth lost its so spacious round, The sky its blue circumference above, That in this little chamber there is found Both earth and heaven-my universe of love! To live their living and to breathe their breath! We might resign all mundane care and strife, And seek together that transcendent sky, Where Father, Mother, Children, Husband, Wife, Together pant in everlasting life! COBLENTZ, Nov., 1835. |