392 ] [APRIL, 



SIMILITUDES. 



WHAT can Love be likened to?- 

 To the glittering, fleeting dew ; 

 To heaven's bright, but fading bow ; 

 To the white, but melting snow ; 

 To fleeting sounds, and viewless air ; 

 To all that's sweet, and false, and fair. 



Whereto can we liken Hope? 

 To the arch of heaven's wide cope, 

 Where birds sing sweetly, but are flying; 

 Where days shine brightly, but are dying ; 

 So near, that we behold it ever ; 

 So far, that we shall reach it never. 



What can Beauty's semblance boast ? 

 The rose resembles her the most, 

 For that's the sweetest among flowers- 

 The brightest gem in Flora's bowers ; 

 And all its sweetness soon is past, 

 And all its brightness fades at last. 



And what are Dreams, that light night's gloom ? 

 Doves that, like Noah's, go and come, 

 To teach the soul this orb of clay 

 Shall not its prison be for aye- 

 That Time's dark waves shall soon subside, 

 And brighter worlds spread far and wide. 



And what's like Popular Renown, 

 When the destroyer it doth crown ? 

 The honey which the wild bee's power 

 Wings from the bosom of the flower; 

 The harmless drones no honey bring 

 They win the sweets who wear the sting. 



And what is like Ambition's flight > 



The eagle, on his airy height; 



On whose broad wings the sunbeam plays, 



Though from the world they hide his rays, 



Drinking the dew before it falls, 



For which the parch'd earth vainly calls. 



H.N. 



