Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/218

 202 EDMUND FLAGG. [1830-40. SMILES OFT DECEIVE. Ah, do not say the heart is light, And free from every care, Because the eye beams calm and bi'ight, And only peace is there. Around the monumental stone The gayest flowers may creep — The breast may wither chill and lone, Yet smiles the brow may keep. Unseen — unknown — the electric dart Sleeps in the rolling cloud ; — So sleeps within the stricken heart The grief it most would shroud. The sunniest smile may often glow Where sorrows gloomiest lower; — Upon the sky will liang the bow, Though all is shade and shower. Soft summer's leaves are fresh and fair, But not so bright are they. As when on Autumn's misty air The forest-rainbows play. Fair on the cheek is beauty's blush, Where rose and lily meet ; And yet consumption's hectic flush, Though sad, is far more sweet. 'Tis not — 'tis not the clam'rous groan — The querulous complaint — The gushing tear — the frequent moan That speaks the soul's lament. Sorrow's a proud — a lonely thing, And never stoops to moiu-n ; — The Spartan's mantle o'er the sting It clasps, and bleeds alone. There oft is woe which never weeps — Tears which ai'e never shed ; — Deep in the soul their fountain sleeps. When hope and joy are fled. Yet who Avould ask the stagnant breast. Which chills not — never glows ? Who would not spurn that waveless rest Wliich neither ebbs nor flows ? Then think not, though the brow is free From shade of gloom or care, The breast is as a summer sea. And happiness dwells there. Ah, think not, though the seeming glance Upon the cheek may play. And on the lip the jest may dance. That grief is far away. THE MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH. Science, With her twin-sister. Art, hath scaled th' Empyrean ! Science, like the dread angel of th' Apoc- alypse, Hath destined Space and Time to be no more ! From the immortal mind now leaps the thought, And, yet unspoken, on the lightning's wing Girdleth the globe ! Away, away flasheth The magic line of thought and feeling ! Over land, o'er sea, o'er mountain, stream, and vale. Through forest dense, and darkest wilder- ness. Mid storm and tempest, fleets the electric spell ; Then to its home, through earth's deep en- trails, speeds Backward in fiery circuit to its rest ; While earth's green bosom doth itself evolve Magnetic flame to light the flashing line ! No more the viewless couriers of the winds Are emblems of the messengers of mind. The speed of sound, the speed of light sur- passed. The speed of thought — mind's magnet- ism — And th' omnipotent power of Fancy's flight. Alone can rival the electric charm !