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Shakespeare.

THE SIGH.

What means that sigh ! Ah me! must words explain The soft vibrations sighs so well impart ? Compar'd with sighs, proud eloquence how vain, Which toys with fancy to delude the heart: Long in my bosom pent, a smother'd flame, With many an effort, it sustained controul, At length relieving anguish forth it came, And told the tumult of my troubled soul. Told—truths as clear as pearly drops distill'd From evening's tender, bland, and tranquil eye; Like those bright gems by nature's lacteals filled, A myriad atoms swelled the speaking sigh. And ask you what it meant ? impassioned sighs— Loit'rings that speak how much we wish to stay, Murmurings that only wait for kind replies, And him we love to guard us on the way.

Joanna Baillie.

But it is ever thus with happiness, It is the gay to-morrow of the mind That never comes.

Love is not to be reason'd down, or lost In high ambition, and a thirst of greatness; 'Tis second life, it grows into the soul, Warms ev'ry vein, and beats in ev'ry pulse.