A thing to bless,

All full of light and loveliness!

MOORE.

I LOOK into thy laughing eyes,—

As bright and blue as summer-skies!—

And watch the thoughts that upward spring, Like birds upon a painted wing;

And to my soul a vision steals,

That just such smiling eyes reveals,

With bird-like hopes to make them gay,—

Till all the bright ones flew away!

How beautiful, amid their dew!

As never o'er their bloom had passed

The breath of one adieu ;

Till other lips before me rise,

With tones as sweet as sweetest bells,—

Until their music turned to sighs,

Like passing-bells, and dew and dyes
Were withered by farewells!

As storm had never touched its rest,

But one bright moon had made it blest, With never-waning spell!—

Has every wish that, like a boat,

Thy heart has launched on that calm sea,

Come brightly back, and only brought New treasure-stores to thee?

-Oh! for the white and silken sails

That one young spirit ventured forth,—
A heart whose hopes went everywhere,
East, west, and south, and north ;-
But one was sunk-and one a wreck-
And now she watches, mournfully,
Where hope has not a single deck
On fancy's silent sea!