Page:Letters of Life.djvu/242

230 If birds of Paradise were there,
 * He fondly guards the glowing trace.

Like him, recall the landscape sweet
 * That woke on this auspicious day;

Nor let so fair an image fleet
 * From memory's vivid page away.

Regard, as through some fountain wave,
 * Whose crystal courts the admiring view;

The brilliant pearls that knowledge gave,
 * The coral cells where friendship grew.

Nor oh, forget the sigh for those,
 * Companions then, in youthful bloom;

Who, withering like the smitten rose,
 * Have sunk in beauty to the tomb.

Where'er o'er life's eventful stage
 * Your far divided path may tend;

Where o'er your locks the frosts of age
 * Or chilling snows of care descend,

Though she, who once with partial eyes,
 * The record of your worth would keep,

Buried and cold to earthly ties,
 * Should moulder in oblivion's sleep,

Remember still this sacred hour,
 * By pity to the sons of need;

By pure affection's changeless power,
 * By deep devotion's heaven-born deed.