| Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829. | | | | Wedded Love’s First Home | | By James Hall |
| | | ’T WAS far beyond yon mountains, dear, we plighted vows of love, | |
| The ocean wave was at our feet, the autumn sky above, | |
| The pebbly shore was covered o’er with many a varied shell, | |
| And on the billows’ curling spray, the sunbeams glittering fell. | |
| The storm has vexed that billow oft, and oft that sun hath set, | 5 |
| But plighted love remains with us, in peace and lustre yet. | |
| I wiled thee to a lonely haunt, that bashful love might speak, | |
| Where none could hear what love revealed, or see the crimson cheek; | |
| The shore was all deserted, and we wandered there alone, | |
| And not a human step impress’d the sand beach but our own; | 10 |
| The footsteps all have vanish’d from the billow beaten strand— | |
| The vows we breathed remain with us—they were not traced in sand. | |
| Far, far, we left the sea-girt shore, endear’d by childhood’s dream, | |
| To seek the humble cot, that smiled by fair Ohio’s stream. | |
| In vain the mountain cliff opposed, the mountain torrent roar’d, | 15 |
| For love unfurl’d her silken wing, and o’er each barrier soar’d; | |
| And many a wide domain we passed, and many an ample dome, | |
| But none so bless’d, so dear to us, as wedded love’s first home. | |
| Beyond these mountains, now are all, that e’er we loved or knew, | |
| The long remembered many, and the dearly cherished few; | 20 |
| The home of her we value, and the grave of him we mourn, | |
| Are there; and there is all the part to which the heart can turn; | |
| But dearer scenes surround us here, and lovelier joys we trace, | |
| For here is wedded love’s first home—its hallowed resting place. | | | | |
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