Fondly to linger o'er your lovely rest,

As o'er the cheek's warm glow,

And the sweet breathings low,

Of babes that grew and faded on her breast;

If then the dove-like tone

Of those faint murmurs gone,

O'er her sick sense too piercingly return;

If for the soft bright hair

And brow and bosom fair,

And life, now dust, her soul too deeply yearn;

O gentle forms, entwined

Like tendrils, which the wind

May wave, so clasped, but never can unlink !

Send from your calm profound

A still small voice, a sound

Of hope, forbidding that lone heart to sink!

By all the pure meek mind

In your pale beauty shrined,

By childhood's love-too bright a bloom to die!

O'er her worn spirit shed,

O fairest, holiest dead!

The faith, trust, joy, of immortality!

THE VOICE OF MUSIC.

Striking the electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound.

Childe Harold.

WHENCE is the might of thy master-spell?
Speak to me, voice of sweet sound, and tell!
How canst thou wake, by one gentle breath,
Passionate visions of love and death!

How callest thou back, with a note, a sigh,
Words and low tones from the days gone by-
A sunny glance, or a fond farewell?—

Speak to me, voice of sweet sound, and tell!

What is thy power, from the soul's deep spring
In sudden gushes the tears to bring?

Even 'midst the swells of thy festal glee,

Fountains of sorrow are stirred by thee!

Vain are those tears !-vain and fruitless allShowers that refresh not, yet still must fall; bliss while the full heart burns,

For a purer

For a brighter home while the spirit yearns!

Something of mystery there surely dwells,
Waiting thy touch, in our bosom-cells;
Something that finds not its answer here—
A chain to be clasped in another sphere.

Therefore a current of sadness deep,
Through the stream of thy triumphs is heard to sweep,
Like a moan of the breeze through a summer sky—
Like a name of the dead when the wine foams high!

Yet speak to me still, though thy tones be fraught With vain remembrance and troubled thought;— Speak! for thou tellest my soul that its birth

Links it with regions more bright than earth.