Page:Sarah Sheppard - L. E. L.pdf/156



I met thee when my childish thoughts Were fresh from childhood's hours;— That pleasant April time of life, Half fancies and half flowers.

Since then how many a change and shade, In life's web have been wrought!— Change has in every feeling been, And change in every thought.

But there has been no change in thee Since to thy feet I came, In joy or sorrow's confidence, And still thou art the same.

Farewell! my own beloved friend, A few years soon pass by;— And the heart makes its own sweet home Beneath a stranger sky;—

A home of old remembrances, Where old affections dwell; While Hope that looks to other days, Soothes even this farewell."



How abiding were these feelings is touchingly evinced in the yearning tenderness of the two poems written during her voyage to Cape Coast, and which are the last recorded melodies of the Poet's heart and memory. Most vividly did home associations rise on her mind as, gazing on the polar star, she breathed the impassioned wish, A power upon thy light; What words upon our English heaven Thy loving rays should writel!
 * "Oh! would to me were given

Kind messages of love and hope Upon thy rays should be; Thy shining orbit would have scope Scarcely enough for me!"

And, again, in her picture of "Night at Sea," how are her vivid descriptions linked with her deep