Felicia Hemans

“ When the woods with the wakening of music ring,
O'er his dreamy spirit your currents pass,
Like shadow and sunlight o'er mountain-grass.
When will your parting be, Sadness and Mirth?
Bright stream and dark one! Oh! never on earth!
Never while triumphs and tombs are so near,
While Death and Love walk the same dim sphere;
While flowers unfold where the storm may sweep,
While the heart of man is a soundless deep! ”

“ And from the soul the lightning-marks to lave—
⁠One draught of that sweet wave!
Yet, mortal, pause!—within thy mind is laid
Wealth, gather'd long and slowly; thoughts divine
Heap that full treasure-house; and thou hast made
The gems of many a spirit's ocean thine:—
Shall the dark waters to oblivion bear
⁠A pyramid so fair? ”

“ Thou hast thy home!—there is no power in change
To reach that Temple of the Past;—no sway
In all Time brings of sudden, dark, or strange,
To sweep the still transparent peace away
From its hush'd air. ”