HOPE, blest, and dearest gift of heaven,
Thy smile can all our griefs assuage;
To man by kind indulgence given,
To cheer his mortal pilgrimage.
Thou blest companion! but for thee,
And thy delightful visions warm,
The world a desart wild would be,
And life itself without a charm.
While journeying through the weary waste,
Before some brighter prospect lies,
Some fairer land of promis’d rest,
For which our ardent wishes rise.
With flowers of never-fading hue,
Thy pencil paints the distant scene;
And there directs our constant view,
To smooth the rugged paths between.
Ask him condemn’d in dreary mines,
To toil through slow revolving years,
On whom the light of heaven ne’er shines,
Nor sounds of joy salute his ears,-
Ask him what arms his manly mind
Against the horrors of despair;
What makes him with a soul resign’d,
His heavy load of misery bear.
He’ll tell thee ‘t is the cheering hope
Of better, happier days to be,
That bears his sinking spirits up,
And bids him live for liberty.
The Russian exile forced to roam,
Far, far from all the scenes he lov’d;
From wife, and children, and from home
By power’s despotic arm remov’d.
While the strong feelings of his soul,
Not yet by slavery supprest,
Too keen, too powerful for controul,
Indignant struggle in his breast-
What prompts him to endure his wrongs,
Sharp hunger, wretchedness, and pain;
And wounded honour’s keener pangs,
And recollection’s cruel train.
‘T is the fond hope his mind sustains,
That his long term of suffering past,
He yet may tread his native plains,
And see his long lost home at last.
He’ll bless once more his infant train,
And meet his Cath’rine’s beaming eye,
And clasp her to his breast again,
With all the joy of extacy.
Even when, like Noah’s wearied dove,
Hope finds no place of rest on earth,
She looks to happier worlds above,
For pleasures of superior birth.
Her fairest, loveliest prospects there,
In bright, immortal beauty bloom:
And permanent as they are fair,
There sad reverses cannot come.
(Isabella Lickbarrow)
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Based on Topics: World Poems, Light Poems, Sadness Poems, Soul Poems, Joy & Excitement Poems, Heaven Poems, Fairness Poems, Friendship Poems, Hope Poems, Pain Poems, Smiling PoemsBased on Keywords: supprest, never-fading, reverses, extacy, rine, cath