62 TO A CHILD. Yet all in vain, the task I ween Reflected back thy mother's heart, That round home's hearth unchanging move. Until, perchance, old Time brings round But truce to dreams of such a date, Play on together, happy pair, In arch simplicity and mirth, Alas! that joy so light and rare Should be so fleet a guest on earth, And things so fashioned to allure Should change to maids and cats demure! EDITOR. THE BOY OF EGREMOND. 'SAY what remains when Hope is fled?' His voice was heard no more? 'Twas but a step-the gulph he passed; But that step!-it was his last! (As through the mist he winged his way, A cloud that hovers night and day,) The hound hung back, and back he drew The master and his merlin too. ROGERS. FRATERNAL AFFECTION, "First charm of Life, last lingering on its stage, TO MY SISTER, ON HER BIRTHDAY. DEAR Anna, many a year has passed, But think not though my lyre has kept Oh! how could friendship sleep the while, Bound as we are by tear and smile, So oft our lot to share! For never on thy open brow Did sorrow brood, or pleasure glow, And mine unchanged appear. Bethink thee how the same loved hearth One were our hopes, our pleasures one, Like buds which share breeze, shower, and sun, The blossoms of one bough. Such ties we owned in joy's light hour, In sorrow's mutual tear; And have not we sad vigil kept O'er dying friends, and watched and wept Can then my voice be mute, my knee On this thy natal day, With ever brightening ray? That thou may'st mourn no sweet hope crossed, No cherished blossom early lost That gems thy social bower; But each to other spared, that time May see thee shield their opening prime, And they thy waning hour? E 66 THE TWIN SISTERS. But should my prayer be vain, and thou As from that dark, mysterious cloud ANON. THE TWIN SISTERS FAIR as two lilies from one stem, which spring Each limb, each joint, each feature could com pare Exact in one with what the other's were; |