Page:Flowers of Loveliness.pdf/16



Not to the sunny hours That waken other flowers, Dost thou fling forth the odour of thy sighing But in the time of gloom, Is yielded thy perfume, Like Love, that lives when all beside is dying.

Mournful the chamber where Thou dost embalm the air! Familiar long with watching and with weeping, An anxious circle gaze Upon the moonlit rays, Amid the tranquil waves of ocean sleeping.

Far on the waters wild; Far from his wife and child, For his sake, reckless on their quiet pillow; More restless than his own, He who is careless thrown, Where sweeps the southern wind, where swells the billow.

Long have they watched and wept, And bitter reckoning kept Of days, alas! that seem to have no ending; The hourly prayer unwon, They see the setting sun Upon some unbroken sea descending.

To every passing cloud A fancy is allowed; It is the fair ship, through the water springing! Ah, no! not yet the gale Expands her homeward sail! Him whom they have so long expected bringing.