And winter's chill is on my heart--
How can I dream of future bliss?
How can my spirit soar away, Confined by such a chain as this?
HOME.
How brightly glistening in the sun The woodland ivy plays!
While yonder beeches from their barks Reflect his silver rays.
That sun surveys a lovely scene From softly smiling skies;And wildly through unnumbered trees The wind of winter sighs:
Now loud, it thunders o'er my head, And now in distance dies.
But give me back my barren hills Where colder breezes rise;Where scarce the scattered, stunted trees Can yield an answering swell, But where a wilderness of heath Returns the sound as well.
For yonder garden, fair and wide, With groves of evergreen, Long winding walks, and borders trim, And velvet lawns between;Restore to me that little spot, With gray walls compassed round, Where knotted grass neglected lies, And weeds usurp the ground.
Though all around this mansion high Invites the foot to roam, And though its halls are fair within--
Oh, give me back my HOME!
VANITAS VANITATUM, OMNIA VANITAS.
In all we do, and hear, and see, Is restless Toil and Vanity.
While yet the rolling earth abides, Men come and go like ocean tides;And ere one generation dies, Another in its place shall rise;THAT, sinking soon into the grave, Others succeed, like wave on wave;And as they rise, they pass away.
The sun arises every day, And hastening onward to the West, He nightly sinks, but not to rest:
Returning to the eastern skies, Again to light us, he must rise.
And still the restless wind comes forth, Now blowing keenly from the North;Now from the South, the East, the West, For ever changing, ne'er at rest.
The fountains, gushing from the hills, Supply the ever-running rills;The thirsty rivers drink their store, And bear it rolling to the shore, But still the ocean craves for more.
'Tis endless labour everywhere!
Sound cannot satisfy the ear, Light cannot fill the craving eye, Nor riches half our wants supply, Pleasure but doubles future pain, And joy brings sorrow in her train;Laughter is mad, and reckless mirth--