Part 2 — CONTEMPLATION.
Reading edition
BY JANE R. DANA.
[ILLUSTRATING AN ENGRAVING.]
Strange! that a tear-drop should o'erfill the eye Of loveliness that looks on all it loves! Yet are there moods, when the soul's wells are high With crystal waters which a strange fear moves, To doubt if what it joys in, be a joy; Fear not, thou fond and gentle one! though life Be but a checkered scene, where wrong and right, Struggle forever; there is not a strife Can reach thy bower: the future, purely bright, Is round about thee, like a summer sky. And there are those, brave hearts and true, to guard Thy walks forever; and to make each hour Of coming time, by fond and faithful ward, Happy as happiest known within thy bridal bower.
