A FILIAL TRIBUTE.
Reading edition
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BY CORNELIA B. BROWNE.
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We thank thee, Father, for thy kindly teaching;
It makes our “desert blossom as the rose,”
When a fond parent, exile over-reaching,
His arm of counsel round as gently throws.
Daily we’ll ponder, as a sacred pleasure,
These calm outpourings of a tender love:
Nightly our prayer shall be, this precious treasure
So to receive, as to be thine above.
Thou heedest, then, that three swift lustres, wending
O’er Time’s winged course, have made me soberer now;
That maidenhood with infancy is blending,
To cast a shade of thought upon my brow?
As the meek virgin merges in the woman,
Aid me to drink of waters more divine;
To purify the needful, earnest, human,
And lay soul-offerings on a holy shrine.
Upon this day, that sealed her blissful union,
Our mother bids us offer thanks to thee:
Permitted foretaste of that high communion,
Where all earth’s exiles are supremely free.
THE DEATH OF THE STAG.