MAIDEN! with the meek, brown eyes, | |
| In whose orbs a shadow lies | |
| Like the dusk in evening skies! | |
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| Thou whose locks outshine the sun, | |
| Golden tresses, wreathed in one, | 5 |
| As the braided streamlets run! | |
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| Standing, with reluctant feet, | |
| Where the brook and river meet, | |
| Womanhood and childhood fleet! | |
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| Gazing, with a timid glance, | 10 |
| On the brooklet’s swift advance, | |
| On the river’s broad expanse! | |
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| Deep and still, that gliding stream | |
| Beautiful to thee must seem, | |
| As the river of a dream. | 15 |
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| Then why pause with indecision, | |
| When bright angels in thy vision | |
| Beckon thee to fields Elysian? | |
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| Seest thou shadows sailing by, | |
| As the dove, with startled eye, | 20 |
| Sees the falcon’s shadow fly? | |
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| Hearest thou voices on the shore, | |
| That our ears perceive no more, | |
| Deafened by the cataract’s roar? | |
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| Oh, thou child of many prayers! | 25 |
| Life hath quicksands,—Life hath snares! | |
| Care and age come unawares! | |
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| Like the swell of some sweet tune, | |
| Morning rises into noon, | |
| May glides onward into June. | 30 |
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| Childhood is the bough, where slumbered | |
| Birds and blossoms many-numbered;— | |
| Age, that bough with snows encumbered. | |
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| Gather, then, each flower that grows, | |
| When the young heart overflows, | 35 |
| To embalm that tent of snows. | |
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| Bear a lily in thy hand; | |
| Gates of brass cannot withstand | |
| One touch of that magic wand. | |
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| Bear through sorrow, wrong, and ruth, | 40 |
| In thy heart the dew of youth, | |
| On thy lips the smile of truth. | |
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| Oh, that dew, like balm, shall steal | |
| Into wounds that cannot heal, | |
| Even as sleep our eyes doth seal; | 45 |
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| And that smile, like sunshine, dart | |
| Into many a sunless heart, | |
| For a smile of God thou art. | |
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