THE DOVES. I. REAS'NING at every step he treads, Man yet mistakes his way, While meaner things, whom instinct leads, Are rarely known to stray. II. One silent eve I wander'd late, III. Our mutual bond of faith and truth, Those blessings of our early youth, Shall cheer our latest age: IV. While innocence without disguise, And constancy sincere, Shall fill the circles of those eyes, And mine can read them there; V. Those ills that wait on all below, Shall ne'er be felt by me; Or, gently felt, and only so, VI. When lightnings flash among the trees, Or kites are hovʼring near; I fear lest thee alone they seize, And know no other fear. VII. 'Tis then I feel myself a wife, VIII. But, oh! if, fickle and unchaste, IX. No need of lightnings from on high, Denied th' endearments of thine eye, X. Thus sang the sweet sequester'd bird And I recorded what I heard.... A lesson for mankind. A FABLE. A RAVEN, while with glossy breast Shook the young leaves about her ears, And now, quoth poor unthinking Ralph, 'Tis over, and the brood is safe; (For Ravens, though, as birds of omen, They teach both conj'rers and old women To tell us what is to befal, Can't prophesy themselves at all.) The morning came, when neighbour Hodge, And destin'd all the treasure there Climb'd like a squirrel to his dray, MORAL. 'Tis Providence alone secures, In every change, both mine and your's: From dangers of a frightful shape; A COMPARISON. THE lapse of time and rivers is the same; And a wide ocean swallows both at last. A difference strikes at length the musing heart; ANOTHER. ADDRESSED TO A YOUNG LADY. SWEET stream that winds through yonder glade Apt emblem of a virtuous maid.... Silent and chaste she steals along, Far from the world's gay busy throng, |