TO A COUSIN.

WOULD I had known thee sooner, friend,

For I feel that chords depart

From thy bosom, and extend
Deep into my heart.

Chords which do communicate

Unheard words on unseen wire,

Leaving on my heart's bright plate
Shining characters of fire!

Would I had shared thy youthful days,

For then to thee I could confide

Thought in every varied phase

Which from the world I fain would hide;

Thou shouldst have known each secret bliss,

My boyhood's love's idolatry,

And aided me to hide a kiss,

As I thy lover's would for thee.

I'd have plucked the butter-cup's bright bowl
Wert thou companion of my youth,

And sang to thee, with all my soul,
Friendship's fervid song of truth,
Because I feel that not alone

Are we bound by chain of kin,
But the soul which thou dost own
Could not fail my heart to win.

Yes, thou art of my being's morn,
Of fairy youth a fairy queen;

In days when through the green-leaved corn
The sunshine poured its golden sheen.
Thy temples morning-glories twine,

Their purple bloom thy black locks loop,

And o'er thy head in airy line

The steel-blue martins twittering stoop.

I see thee but as one with whom
Comes back each early joyful thing,
And for the time my heart's in bloom,
And nature opens into spring.

And oh! 'tis pleasant thus to feel
There are some beings on the earth

That all our sadnesses can steal,

And give old dying Joy new birth.

I'm glad I've met thee—it will give
New roses to life's barren track.
'Tis better worth my while to live
To see the Pleiad lost come back;

Or rather say a star appear

Where all before was blank and dark

A new light in the atmosphere,

A beacon to my ocean ark.

I'm glad I've met thee—thou art one
To whom I freely can impart.
Thy nature is in unison

With all the soul strings of my heart. Then all my many faults forgive,

And kind, as well as kindred, prove; May each new year add, while we live, A tendril to our vine of love.

TO BA I LE Y,

THE AUTHOR OF FESTUS.

IMMORTAL Bard! Bright spirit of the age,
Strong hast thou chained to thy triumphant car
Reason and Fancy, lightning-footed steeds!
Faith shakes her bright magnetic reins;
They spring from earth with rapid majesty ;
The morning sunbeams, slanting from the clouds,
The pathway form for those celestial wheels,
Rising like the Sun himself, who brighter
Grows with rising; Religion o'er thee spread
A talismanic rainbow-evil proof;

Thy course is onward through the upper air
Encircled by unnumbered stars that move
With mazy motion through the realms of space;
Undaunted thou dost hold thy way serene,
While system after system rolls along,

And wandering comets with their trains of flame
Rush harmless by thy scathless chariot;

Thou shoutest, "On!" unto the coursers bold;
Then, rapid as a rocket from the earth,
The chariot shoots into the ether,

While from its tracks fly sparkling flakes of gold,
Like fire-flies which gild a summer's night;—
Anon, thy speed is checked awhile to gaze
Upon some Eden smiling at thy feet;
Again advancing, with such fearful flight,
That mighty planets do but seem like lamps
Hung in the halls which lead up into heaven;
Nor halting, at the awful realm of shade,
Where, on a throne immense of skulls and bones,
With Hell's fierce fires flaming in his eyes,

Decay and Ruin crouching at his feet,
Sits awful Death, in solemn state and pride;
But, passing through the gates of flame, which bar
The evil spirits from the realms of bliss,
Thou enterest heaven's limitless domain,
Whereof to breathe one breath is far more joy
Than all the pleasures earth hath ever known;
Thy guardian angel then doth lead thee on,
Where cherubim and seraphim elect
Stand, countless as the motes in summer air,
And throng the way up to the awful Throne,
Where higher, by ten million times, above
What angels are, as is creation

In its vast extent above an atom,

The Son, with God, the Indescribable,
Is supplicating-and the world is saved.