ALICE VERNON.
Reading edition
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BY E. CURTISS HINE, U. S. N.
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There is many a bright star gleaming,
In memory’s distant sky,
And their soft light is streaming
On days long, long gone by.
And often hover round me
The loved and lost of yore,
Ere cankering care had found me,
Or life’s young dream was o’er!
We see at early morning
Soft hues steal o’er the sky,
Its eastern arch adorning,
To glad the raptured eye,
But deem not their complexion,
Like flowers in joyous spring,
Is caused by the reflection
From passing angel’s wing!
E’en thus, our thoughts concealing.
We watch o’er woman’s cheek
The hues of beauty stealing,
With hearts too full to speak,
And little think those blushes,
Like June’s young roses fair,
Come when some angel brushes
His loving pinions there!
O, fair young Alice Vernon,
To thee fond memory turns,
As loving sun-flowers turn on
Their stems when noon-day burns!
We roamed the woods together
In life’s young break of day,
Ere clouds and wintry weather
Had shadowed o’er our way!
Bright were thy braided tresses,
As braided sunbeams are,
And like a glimpse of Heaven
The smile that thou didst wear.
That smile still haunts my memory
Like tale of fairy land,
And oft in dreamy mood I see
Thy form before me stand!
Sweet, laughing Alice Vernon,
It seemeth strange to me,
And yet they tell me Time hath laid
His heavy hand on thee!
I cannot deem thee faded,
Though weary suns have set
On weary, weary, weary days
And years since last we met!
I feel it now—the fairest things
Are doomed to pass away,
And yet my heart the firmest clings
To those that first decay!
And so, sweet Alice Vernon,
I turn to thee always,
As flowers their stems will turn on
To drink the sun’s bright rays!