Whose love, in its undying prime, Is furthest from repining; 1839. B SONNET. BETCHWORTH AVENUE-I. ETCHWORTH! thy stately avenue is fraught Whose long-drawn perspective of nave and aisle And lo, one sunbeam! which the half-shut eye SONNET. BETCHWORTH AVENUE-II. H OW the wild winter's desecrating powers Have marred thy saintly features! sight nor Of summer months remains, above, around, SONNET-RECOVERY. DECEMBER 1839. LADY, the friends who annually meet Under thy much loved roof, together greet Thee, chained no longer to a weary bed, With anxious pain confused, and throbbing head, Of God our frail mortality put on, In great humility to seek and save Lost humankind, and triumph o'er the grave. Thanks, gracious Power, that dost our dwellings cheer Albeit fierce storms darken the skies above E THE SHORTEST DAY. ARLY sloping to its place of refuge see the solar car; Coasting like a vessel guided by some fearful mariner. The eaves, that dripped in noontide sun-thaw, at the chill approach of night Are hung with many a bead, and jagged with many an icy stalactite. Now a star, and now another; now a constellated braid Peeps out; and now the firmament with golden patines is inlaid, From Aldebaran peering o'er the horizon with his golden eye, To the Bear, and Cassiopeia, in the circumpolar sky. 'Tis time to quit the frost-bound fields, and garden desolate with snow, For the shelter of our roof-tree, for the cheerful fire side glow; For the hearth domestic, centre of all blithesome re creation; Yet at solemn Epochs consecrate to loftier meditation. |