HOPE , heavenly maid! to thee I sing,
Who hovering round the anguish’d heart,
Dost steep in dewy balm thy wing,
To lenify affliction’s dart;
And to this dismal vale of care,
Cam’st down to chase away despair.
Ah! why unceasing breathe the sigh?
Celestial bliss may yet be nigh–
So whispers Hope, our bosom’s pang to cheer,
She on the present smiles, and checks the starting tear.
Hope throws o’er gloom a cheering veil,
And is in mis’ry’s darkest hour
More gentle than the morning gale,
That fans with health each beauteous flow’r;
For in this chequer’d scene of woe,
Where streams of anguish ceaseless flow,
Thy rays benign can give relief,
And stay the pearly fount of grief:
Pale sorrow at thy gentle voice will fly,
Quick as yon twinkling stars when the bright dawn is nigh.
‘Tis thine to cheer the midnight gloom,
And bring composure to the breast;
Though near we view the narrow tomb,
The mossy turf where all must rest!
And wilt thou not, with placid smile,
Our unknown journey still beguile,
And give support to that blest shore,
Where never care can reach us more?
For Nature smil’d when thou wert plac’d on earth,
And through her gloomiest vales resounded mirth.
The miser tells his gold, and sighs
That Nature’s doom he must obey,
But ere death seals his sordid eyes,
He calls on thee to cheer his way.
The parent at thy shrine is found,
With all his lisping treasure round;
For thou canst stay each rending tear
Of mortals, as they traverse here;
“With sweet delusion real joys inspire,
“And kindle in the gloom unwonted fire.”
Youth lives on thee, nor heeds the wound
Of stern despair, whose gloomy eye
Ne’er rests on what is cheerful found,
In nought delighting but a sigh.
She wanders o’er the paths of woe,
With bosom cold as
(Maria Logan)
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