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WISHES.
2
It was one summer night,
I sailed on the wide sea far,
And our pilot and our hope
Was the gleam of one pale star.
It had risen unmarked, what time
The red sun touched the brine;
But a thousand rich clouds shone,
And it won no gaze of mine.
Now eve after eve I watched
That sweet star's guiding light;
And my heart learnt a meeker lesson
From the quiet presence of night;
And such, I said, be my fate—
A calm and a lowly one,
But passed in blessing and peace,
As that fair star has done.
Oh! what is the brightest hour
That ever to earth was given,
To the beauty of that mild light,
Which is direct from heaven!
