y spirit leaped to joy again,
Thou wert the one who joyed most in its gladness.
Ay, more than nurse--and more than comforter--
Thou taught'st my erring spirit not to err,
Gave it a softness nature had not given,
As now the blessed moon makes earth resemble heav'n.

VI.
How deep the bitterness alone to grieve
In grief's deep hour--the death-watch of the night--
When Fancy can no more her day dreams weave,
And there seems madness in the moon's pale light--
When sorrow holds us, like a life-long state,
Not as a portion, but the whole of fate,
When the mind yields, like sick men to their dreams,
Who know all is not right, yet know not that which seems.

VII.
Why come such thoughts across the brow? Oh, why
Cannot the soul sit firmly on her throne,
And keep beside her strong Philosophy?
Alas! I am a wanderer and alone.
Beneath deep feeling reason's self must sink;
We cannot change the thought, yet we _must_ think;
And, O! how darkly come such thoughts to me--
The gathered pangs of years, recounting agony.

VIII.
Who has not felt, in such a night as this,
The glory and the greatness of a God,
And bowed his head, in humbleness, to kiss
His merciful and kindly chast'ning rod?
The far off stars! how beautiful and bright!
Peace seems abroad upon the world to-night;
And e'en the bubble, dancing on the stream,
Is glittering with hope,--a dream--a very dream!

IX.
In sickness and in sorrow, how the breast
Will garner its affections in their home!
Like stricken bird that cowers within its nest,
And feels no more an anxiousness to roam;
While a thick darkness, like a cloud, comes o'er
The gallant spirit;--it can rise no more
To wing its way, as if it sought the sky,
But falls to earth, forlorn, as though it fell to die.

X.
And yet, there is a torturing sense of life,
E'en in the feeling of the quick drawn breath,
That tells of many years of woe and strife,
Ekeing our being out, though bringing death:
While Fancy, with a thousand thronging tales,
Now in her gladness, now in woe, prevails,--
Till the dark moment of o'erwhelming grief,
When sorrow mourns as one who cannot find relief.