Hopes

Hopes

My early hopes - my early hopes,

Where are ye now? and why

With cypress have ye wreath'd my heart,

And bade its blossoms die?

I nurs'd my rose with dew of love,

And warm'd it with my breath,

And little reck'd with all my care

'Twould meet so quick a death.

My early hopes - my early hopes,

When your bright theme was press'd,

All palpable and glowing too,

Around my beating breast,

Was not this bosom HAPPY then,

And life, did not it seem

As form'd but for the bliss of love,

And rapture's holy dream?

My early hopes - my early hopes,

Some fleeting years were yours,

To prove the worth of woman's heart;

How pure her faith endures,

But death that palls the fairest cheek,

And dims the brightest eye,

Plac'd my lov'd casket in the tomb,

Its diamond in the sky.

My early hopes - my early hopes,

I know that ye are past,

For aye, ye were too beautiful,

Too valued long to last;

Ye're gone, and in your shadow'd train,

All that could bless my heart,

The which was more than joy to meet,

And worse than pain to part!

My latest hopes - my latest hopes,

Ah, what are ye? and where

Can look my soul for happiness,

Untinct with earthly care?

Lo, yonder shines the guiding star,

That beam'd o'er Bethlehem,

I feel, my hopes, that ye are plac'd,

Within the Christian's home.

Arion

2:19, p. 151

1828.08.01