THE TELL-TALE FACE. I love the playful fancies Of an unsuspecting heart, I love the face, that speaketh These are the voice of nature, I love that quick expression, Those warm, those heavenly blushes, With thoughts it dares not speak. 39 Those shades that come unbidden From every passing cloud, With tales of care deep hidden 'Neath merry looks and proud; The sudden gleam of pleasure From brow and eye and lip, That tells the heart hath treasures It scarce knows how to keep. These, these are voices given, I bow to wit and beauty, I almost worship grace, But I owe especial duty To an honest tell-tale face. OH NO! I would not wish to die When life had but begun, When scarce its morning light had dawned, To see its setting sun; I would not aught should rudely dash The sparkling cup away, Ere yet I'd tasted of the draught Which deep within it lay; Nor would I that this bud of life Just opening into bloom, Should blight beneath some withering blast, And lose its sweet perfume. Ye tell me cares and sorrows throng As life wears on apace, That all our infant hopes and joys And vanish like the crystal dew That every flower which decks the path Shall wither 'neath some chilling frost And leave alone the thorn. But wish ye from its parent stem Its brightness soon must end? Because its transient hues must pass Full quickly from the sight? Wish ye to stay the rising sun Lest haply ere his course be run Some cloud should veil his head? STANZAS. O, wish not then thine own fresh bud Were wrested from its stem, The living casket broke which holds I know that life's a chequered scene With dreary Gloom and wild Despair But it is good that man should tread The varied path of Time, And dwell where circling seasons turn, For are not storm and calm alike The gift of boundless Love? And light and shade-come they not down -The new-born soul, like budding fruit, Demands alike the sun and storm For its full ripening. 43 |