tant ember.

BLIND LOUISE.

She knew that she was growing blind--
Forsaw the dreary night
That soon would fall, without a star,
Upon her fading sight:

Yet never did she make complaint,
But pray'd each day might bring
A beauty to her waning eyes--
The loveliness of Spring!

She dreaded that eclipse which might
Perpetually inclose
Sad memories of a leafless world--
A spectral realm of snows.

She'd rather that the verdure left
An evergreen to shine
Within her heart, as summer leaves
Its memory on the pine.

She had her wish: for when the sun
O'erhung his eastern towers,
And shed his benediction on
A world of May-time flowers--

We found her seated, as of old,
In her accustom'd place,
A midnight in her sightless eyes,
And morn upon her face!

A BLIGHTED MAY.

Call not this the month of roses--
There are none to bud and bloom;
Morning light, alas! discloses
But the winter of the tomb.
All that should have deck'd a bridal
Rest upon the bier--how idle!
Dying in their own perfume.

Every bower is now forsaken--
There's no bird to charm the air!
From the bough of youth is shaken
Every hope that blossom'd there;
And my soul doth now inrobe her
In the leaves of sere October
Under branches swaying bare.

When the midnight falls beside me,
Like the gloom which in me lies,
To the stars my feelings guide me,
Seeking there thy sainted eyes;
Stars whose rays seem ever bringing
Down the soothing air, the singing
Of thy soul in paradise.

Oh, that I might stand and listen
To that music ending never,
While those tranquil stars should glisten
On my life's o'erfrozen river,
Standing thus, for ever seeming
Lost in what the world calls dreaming,
Dreaming, love, of thee, forever!

THE SHADY SIDE.

I sat and gazed upon thee, ROSE,
Across the pebbled way,
And thought the very wealth of mirth
Was thine that winter day;
For while I saw the truant rays
Within thy window glide,
Remember'd beams reflected came
Upon the shady side.

I sat and gazed upon thee, ROSE,
And thought the transient beams
Were leaving on thy braided brow
The trace of golden dreams;
Those dreams, which like the