Page:Poems of Sentiment and Imagination.djvu/256

252 I'm borne away upon its pinions golden,
 * To other times and scenes than these around—

My soul is floating upon mem'ries olden,
 * To a past world of feeling more profound—

To a past world seen with a young girl's vision—
 * Rose-tinted and gold-lighted Paradise!

Full of soft music and of paths elysian,
 * Lit even by the most bewildering skies—

By day unclouded, and by evening glowing
 * With the wild flashes of the mystic stars,

While 'neath their glory rivers ever flowing,
 * Ring molten notes of gold through silver bars!

In this past world, where thou and I, as fated.
 * Met by the dim, deep fountain of first love—

Drank from one cup with thrilling nectar freighted—
 * Then, with the angels smiling from above,

And roses in our path, and bosoms thrilling.
 * Together wandered through this Eden-land,

Our souls with beauty and with passion filling.
 * Led by a chain of light, linked hand in hand

In this past world, where the first storm burst o'er us,
 * And wrapped us up in terror and surprise—

And tore our clinging hands apart and bore us
 * Far from each other and our paradise—

And left us weak and wasted, sad and lonely.
 * Calling upon each other through the gloom—

Yet finding not and hearing echoes only,
 * Treading on thorns instead of velvet bloom!

Upon one errand since that fatal hour
 * Does my faint spirit through the wide earth roam;

Nerving its wing with hope's mysterious power.
 * To find thee, lost one, and to bring thee home.