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ON THE MARRIAGE OF MISS ELIZABETH MARY NICHOLL CARNE, FEBRUARY 6TH, 1868.
Oh, blessed Love! that clothes with laughing flowers Life's martyr-crown of thorns, and raises up The heart to hold communion with its God, 'Tis thine, this day, with golden clasp, to bind The volume of a life, where sterling worth And beauty go to make the story up. A maiden, one, who, when on tiptoe, sees Her history running through a line of Kings: In fame how excellent; in life how pure; As though the virtues of her ancestry Had found new utterance in her virtuous self. As rain-drops, trickling through the hills of Time, Commingling gather, till, in sparkling life, They come, a streamlet, happy in the sun, To gladden all with beauty, so the gems That thickly fleck an old ancestral name From time how distant, centre in the soul Of her who comes this day with loving smile To crown a husband with such wealth of worth As 'tis her own to give. Thrice happy pair! May cloudlets never dim the arc of light That should engirdle all their lives, and make Their home a paradise. If such should come, May they be transient as a summer cloud That mars but for a moment, yet to make The sky more beautiful. May truest Love Be with them ever, garnishing their lives With bliss perpetual, and lighting up Their footsteps o'er the earth, as when, of old, God's angels walked with men. So shall they live A life which loving hearts alone may know.