Page:The Domestic Affections, and Other Poems.pdf/155



Does memory's pencil oft, in mellowing hue, Dear social scenes, departed joys renew; In softer tints delighting to retrace, Each tender image and each well-known face? Yes! wanderer, yes! thy spirit flies to those, Whose love unalter'd, warm and faithful glows!

Oh! could that love, thro' life's eventful hours, Illume thy scenes and strew thy path with flow'rs! Perennial joy should harmonize thy breast, No struggle rend thee, and no cares molest! But tho' our tenderness can but bestow, The wish, the hope, the prayer, averting woe; Still shall it live, with pure, unclouded flame, In storms, in sun-shine, far and near—the same! Still dwell enthron'd within th' unvarying heart, And firm, and vital—but with life depart!

Bronwhilfa, 8th Feb. 1811.