Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/142

138 Another and a different kind of love,

Whose power will be a wild idolatry—

A worship stronger than the wildest strength

The majesty of nature can inspire.

It would be well couldst thou forever keep

Thy pure and innocent guilelessness of thought;

But the world hath it otherwise; and none

May pass its confines without having felt

Its cold and chilling bitterness. But go;

Thy father will await thee, wondering

At thy long tarrying away from him.

And see! where late the sunset hues were bright,

A sullen, heavy, inky-colored mass

Is darkening the horizon. We shall see

The tempest in its might, and hear the sound

Of awful music, such as sea, and sky,

And winds, and creaking earth commingled,

Making one terrible chorus, can produce!

Haste then; but ere thou goest, let me pray

Heaven's blessings on thee and thy innocence.

God bless thee, and farewell!

Azlea. I thank thee, holy father. Azlea

Will keep thy blessing in remembrance.

Her. (Soliloquizing.)

Earth hath some Eden-spirits yet—though few.

O how may man, in his dark sinfulness,

Stand silenced and rebuked before a child!

Who, knowing not of reason, hath yet learned

To call life's mockeries by their real name;

And being herself all love, yet how to keep

Her spirit all unsullied from earth's lusts;

While he, with his threat, godlike attributes,

Still keeps within his bosom ceaseless streams

Of every evil passion, till his heart

Hath not one fountain in it of sweet waters!