Page:Poems of Nature and Life.djvu/375

 ODE TO HOPE 365

Thy chiefest charm I in thy silence see ;
 * ' Ask for my tongue." " Nay, now, excuse ! For know,

Speech had dispersed thy lovers long ago ; Full half the world have cause to envy thee.

" Rejoice, then, in thy silence, and excuse

Thine author, since one greater lack remains :

The man was wise who did a tongue refuse. Where he had been so niggardly of brains." ^^

��ODE TO HOPE.

Daughter of Joy ! If she who grasped thy wings.

Lest thou to Heaven shouldst 'scape from that dark den

Whence sped o'er earth such hosts of hateful things, No other service may have done for men,

Still were it right that frail Pandora's name

Should be immortal on the rolls of Fame,

Since her blest gift to man all others puts to shame.

And, if my mind the unjust decree of Fate Condemns, that caged a spirit born to aspire,

And doomed thee long to herd in loathsome state With Sin and Sorrow, may it more admire

That worth whose loss filled those sad sprites with dread !

Hell was half happy till it deemed thee dead.

Nor wholly hateful grew till thou for aye hadst fled.

O blessed spirit, that canst spotless live In the same house with Evil ! Hating not.

Pitying whom Charity can scarce forgive, And cheering those thy sisters had forgot,

Thou in the worst some germs of good wilt see ;

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