132 IIENEY KIRKE WUITE's POEMS. 



TO APRIL. 



Emblem of life ! see changeful April sail 



In varying vest along the shadowy skies, 

 Now, bidding Summer's softest zephyrs rise, 

 Anon, recalling Winter's stormy gale, 

 And pouring from the cloud her sudden hail ; 



Then smiling through the tear that dims her eyes, 

 While Iris, with her braid the welkin dyes. 

 Promise of sunshine not so prone to fail. 

 So, to us sojourners in life's low vale, 

 The smiles of fortune flatter to deceive, 

 While still the Fates the web of Misery weave. 

 So Hope exultant spreads her aery sail, 

 And from the pleasant bloom, the soul conveys, 

 To distant summers, and far happier days. 



Ye unseen spirits, whose wild melodies ; 

 At evening rising slow, yet sweetly clear, 

 Steal on the musing poet's pensive ear, 



As by the wood-spring stretched supine he lies ; 



When he who now invokes you, low is laid, 



His tired frame resting on the earth's cold bed ; 



Hold ye your ni^htly vigils o'er his head, ; 



And chant a dirge to his reposing shade ! i 



For he was wont to love your madrigals ; i 



And often by that haunted stream that laves 

 The dark sequestered woodland's inmost caves, 



Would sit and listen to the dying falls, 



Till the full tear would quiver in his eye, 



And his big heart would heave with mournful ecstacy 



