•35 
And thought I, kneeling by thy side, 
Such lot Love's annals ne’er recorded ! 
Life seem’d all sunshine to the bride, — 
What has it to the wife afforded ? 
1 will not say, since first we met, 
My path has been all light and glory; 
Or, without thorns Love’s coronet; 
Or, that no cloud has e’er come o’er me : 
But oft my fond heart has avow’d 
Those thorns were never of thy twining; 
And could thy hand have staid the cloud, 
My sky had e’er been bright and shining: 
And as, ’twixt midnight clouds afar, 
Some lonely gem is oft seen peeping, 
So thy loved smile, my bosom’s star, 
Has cheer’d me through my night of weeping. 
Nor to that smile the past alone 
Owes what it hath of joyous seeming; 
It is of present joys the crown, — 
It is upon the future beaming. 
D 2 
