TEARS. O YE tears! O ye tears! that have long refused to flow, Ye are welcome to my heart, thawing, thawing, like the snow; I feel the hard clod soften, and the early snow-drops spring, And the healing fountains gush, and the wildernesses sing. O ye tears! O ye tears! I am thankful that ye run; Though ye trickle in the darkness, ye shall glisten in the sun. The rainbow cannot shine, if the drops refuse to fall, And the eyes that cannot weep, are the saddest eyes of all. O ye tears! O ye tears! till I felt ye on my cheek, I was selfish in my sorrow; I was stubborn, I was weak. Ye have giv'n me strength to conquer, and I stand erect and free, And know that I am human, by the light of sympa thy. O ye tears! O ye tears! ye relieve me of my pain ; The barren rock of Pride has been stricken once again : Like the rock that Moses smote amid Horeb's burning sand, It yields the flowing water, to make gladness in the land. There is light upon my path! there is sunshine in my heart! And the leaf and fruit of life shall not utterly depart. Ye restore to me the freshness and the bloom of long ago O ye tears! happy tears! I am thankful that ye flow! LITTLE AT FIRST-BUT GREAT AT LAST. A TRAVELLER through a dusty road, And one took root, and sprouted up, And grew into a tree. Love sought its shade at evening time, And Age was pleased, in heats of noon, The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, The birds sweet music bore; It stood a glory in its place, A little spring had lost its way He thought not of the deed he did, But judg'd that toil might drink. 1 He pass'd again — and lo! the well, By summers never dried, Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, And saved a life beside! A dreamer dropp'd a random thought; 'Twas old, and yet was new— A simple fancy of the brain, But strong in being true; The thought was small A watch-fire on the hill, its issue great: It sheds its radiance far adown, A nameless man, amid a crowd A whisper on the tumult thrown - It raised a brother from the dust, O germ! O fount! O word of love! Ye were but little at the first, HAPPY LOVE. SINCE the sweet knowledge I possess All Nature throbs with happiness, The woods seem greener than they were, The stars shine clearer, and the air Lets finer sunlight through. Until I loved I was a child, The circles of my sympathy I strove to pierce a mystery, And lo! the clue is given. The woods, with all their boughs and leaves, Are preachers of delight, And wandering clouds in summer eves Are Edens to my sight. |