'Tis not where hand meets hand, nor face meets face,

Amid the crowded throng of loveless men,

The spirit finds its fellow; but by chance

We stumble on it in some nook obscure :

For as in mountain glens we shout and shout,
Expectant for the echo, but in vain ;

At last, from distant and unreck'd-of crag,
The wish'd-for joyful answer is return'd;
E'en so the melody of love bursts forth

And fills with tune the waiting human heart –
Sustained undying to another world.

THE WIFE.

TRUE Woman, from thy beaming eye Of deep, unfathom'd constancy

A beauteous little lake

There seems a tide of love to flow,

That gives man strength to undergo

E'en death for thy dear sake!

Unfrozen by the chill of art,

That checks the summer of the heart,

Changing the very self,

Like ivy round the ruin'd tower,

She clings in sorrow's darkest hour, In poverty or wealth.

See where the soul so brightly calm

Shines through the face with every charm

Expression can invest:

With peerless form and mental grace

Like jewel in a golden case—

Man may in her delight to trace

All that can make him blest.

Now that Love's bloom has burst in flower,
It forms an overspreading bower
Beneath whose grateful shade

Man may enjoy a life-long day;
Where evergreens ne'er fall away;
And blossoms never fade.

Soft as th' Æolian harp, her mind
Feels the least whisper of the wind,

However faint it blow;

The first to hear joy's breezy air,
Or catch the mutterings of despair,
She turns to music all our care,

To happiness our woe.

As points the needle to the pole,

With faithful hand, though tempests roll,

And shake its fragile form;

So when her fond affections rest

On man, that slender frame will breast

Life's fiercest, bitterest storm!

Mark ye, where spans the beauteous bow, Serenely with its iris glow,

The clouds replete with rain;

So the true wife, with calm bright eye,
Hangs o'er man's earthly destiny,

And cheers the hours of pain.

ODE TO FRIENDSHIP.

OH! sacred bond, in whose sweet hold Two kindred spirits meet and blend; There's nought more beauteous to behold

Than one who is a faithful friend

Whose love for fellow-child of earth,
Refined by woe and suffering dire,

Is proved of richer, higher worth;
As gold when purified by fire.

Oh! such art thou, and such have proved
Thy name and lineage to be.
Believe me, that thou art beloved

As true and fervently by me.