THE FAIRY’S SEARCH 
2 
And hope and peace and joy belong 
To all who trod those halls ; 
But ah ! no mortal home is free 
From care’s intrusive form; 
And never human heart can be 
Exempt from sorrow’s storm. 
Within a large and lofty room 
Where mocking splendor’s smil’d, 
A mother sat in grief and gloom 
And sorrow’d o’er her child :— 
Not o’er her child—but o’er the clay 
That, when the yester-morn had birth, 
Enshrin’d a “ gem of purest ray,” 
A pearl of priceless worth. 
A Mighty Power hath claim’d the gem, 
With purpose good and wise, 
And set it in a diadem 
Whose light illumes the skies. 
The mother knows her pearl will shine 
Far brighter in its home above, 
Yet must her spirit long repine 
For that which woke its fondest love. 
The rifled casket still is dear 
Although its light is fled, 
And mourning love must drop a tear 
Above the early dead. 
With eyes that rain like Summer showers, 
With trembling hand and anguish’d face, 
The mother now, with clustering flowers 
Bedeck’s her child’s last dwelling place. 
Ah , see how fair his pallid brow 
Looks in that rosy garland now ! 
And mark what life-like hue is caught 
