Thy Lot, and such thy Brothers too enjoy.
At distance did ye climb Life's upland road,
Yet cheer'd and cheering: now fraternal Love
Hath drawn you to one centre. Be your days
Holy, and blest and blessing may ye live!

To me th' Eternal Wisdom hath dispens'd
A different fortune and more different mind-
Me from the spot where first I sprang to light,
Too soon transplanted, ere my soul had fix'd
Its first domestic loves; and hence through life
Chacing chance-started Friendships. A brief while
Some have preserv'd me from life's pelting ills;
But, like a Tree with leaves of feeble stem,

If the clouds lasted, or a sudden breeze

Ruffled the boughs, they on my head at once

Dropt the collected shower: and some most false,

False and fair-foliag'd as the Manchineel,

Have tempted me to slumber in their shade

E'en mid the storm; then breathing subtlest damps,

Mix'd their own venom with the rain from heaven,

That I woke poison'd! But, all praise to Him

Who gives us all things, more have yielded me

Permanent shelter and beside one Friend,

:

Beneath th' impervious covert of one Oak,
I've rais'd a lowly shed, and know the names
Of Husband and of Father; nor unhearing
Of that divine and nightly-whispering VOICE,
Which from my childhood to maturer years
Spake to me of predestinated wreaths,
Bright with no fading colours!

Yet at times

My soul is sad, that I have roam'd through life
Still most a Stranger, most with naked heart

That hang above us in an arborous roof,

Stirred by the faint gale of departing May

Send their loose blossoms slanting o'er our heads!

Nor dost not thou sometimes recall those hours,
When with the joy of hope thou gav'st thine ear
To my wild firstling lays. Since then my song
Hath sounded deeper notes, such as beseem
Or that sad wisdom, folly leaves behind;

Or the high raptures of prophetic Faith;

Or such, as tun'd to these tumultuous times
Cope with the tempest's swell!

These various songs,

Which I have fram'd in many a various mood,

Accept my BROTHER! and (for some perchance Will strike discordant on thy milder mind)

At mine own home and birth-place: chiefly then,

When I remember thee, my earliest Friend!

Thee, who didst watch my boy-hood and my youth;

Didst trace my wanderings with a father's eye;
And boding evil yet still hoping good

Rebuk'd each fault and wept o'er all my woes.

Who counts the beatings of the lonely heart,
That Being knows, how I have lov'd thee ever,
Lov'd as a Brother, as a Son rever'd thee!

O tis to me an ever-new delight,

My eager eye glist'ning with mem'ry's tear,
To talk of thee and thine; or when the blast
Of the shrill winter, ratt'ling our rude sash,
Endears the cleanly hearth and social bowl;

Or when, as now, on some delicious eve,
We in our sweet sequester'd Orchard-plot

Sit on the Tree crook'd earth-ward; whose old boughs,