There have been sweet singing voices In your walks that now are still; There are seats left void in your earthly homes, Which none again may fill. Soft eyes are seen no more That made spring-time in your heart; Kindred and friends are gone before,— And ye still fear to part? -We fear not now, we fear not! Though the way through darkness bends; Our souls are strong to follow them, 28 THE BREEZE FROM LAND. "As when to them who sail Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past Of Araby the Blest; with such delay Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league, Cheer'd with the grateful smell, old Ocean smiles. Paradise Lost. Joy is upon the lonely seas, When Indian forests pour Forth to the billow and the breeze Oh! welcome are the winds that tell Where far away the jasmines dwell, And where the myrrh-trees weep! Bless'd, on the sounding surge and foam, Are tidings of the citron's home! The sailor at the helm they meet, That woo him, from the mournful main, They woo him, whispering lovely tales Of many a flowering glade, And fount's bright gleam in island-vales Of golden-fruited shade ; Across his lone ship's wake they bring A vision and a glow of spring! And oh ye masters of the lay! Come not e'en thus your songs, That meet us on life's weary way Amidst her toiling throngs? Yes! o'er the spirit thus they bear A current of celestial air! Their power is from the brighter clime That in our birth hath part, Their tones are of the world which time They tell us of the living light They call us with a voice divine Our vows of youth at many a shrine Whence far and soon we rove : That make us Truth's and Heaven's again! * *Written immediately after reading the "Remarks on the Character and Writings of Milton," in the Christian Examiner. TO ONE OF THE AUTHOR'S CHILDREN ON HIS BIRTHDAY, 27 AUGUST, 1825. THOU wak'st from happy sleep to play Thou hast no heavy thought or dream Yet ere the cares of life lie dim From whom each pure thought springs! So in the onward vale of tears, When strength hath bow'd to evil years- |