Then do not bid it fly!
Though hope may promise joys, that still Unkindly time will ne'er fulfil;Or, if they come at all, We never find them unalloyed,--
Hurtful perchance, or soon destroyed, They vanish or they pall;Yet hope ITSELF a brightness throws O'er all our labours and our woes;While dark foreboding Care A thousand ills will oft portend, That Providence may ne'er intend The trembling heart to bear.
Or if they come, it oft appears, Our woes are lighter than our fears, And far more bravely borne.
Then let us not enhance our doom But e'en in midnight's blackest gloom Expect the rising morn.
Because the road is rough and long, Shall we despise the skylark's song, That cheers the wanderer's way?
Or trample down, with reckless feet, The smiling flowerets, bright and sweet, Because they soon decay?
Pass pleasant scenes unnoticed by, Because the next is bleak and drear;Or not enjoy a smiling sky, Because a tempest may be near?
No! while we journey on our way, We'll smile on every lovely thing;And ever, as they pass away, To memory and hope we'll cling.
And though that awful river flows Before us, when the journey's past, Perchance of all the pilgrim's woes Most dreadful--shrink not--'tis the last!
Though icy cold, and dark, and deep;Beyond it smiles that blessed shore, Where none shall suffer, none shall weep, And bliss shall reign for evermore!
APPEAL.
Oh, I am very weary, Though tears no longer flow;My eyes are tired of weeping, My heart is sick of woe;My life is very lonely My days pass heavily, I'm weary of repining;Wilt thou not come to me?
Oh, didst thou know my longings For thee, from day to day, My hopes, so often blighted, Thou wouldst not thus delay!
THE STUDENT'S SERENADE.
I have slept upon my couch, But my spirit did not rest, For the labours of the day Yet my weary soul opprest;And before my dreaming eyes Still the learned volumes lay, And I could not close their leaves, And I could not turn away.