Page:Poems David.djvu/66

His joyous song is heard no more,
And his brow more shaded than of yore,—
His merry laugh is subdued and hushed,
And his cheek is marked with a feverish flush;
His elastic tread, become slow and weak,
Of his future fate it too well bespeaks!
"Harold, how evenly yon waters seem to flow,
With many a fathom far below
The seaweed and painted shells lie spread,
With the zoophytes on their sandy bed;
While to the seaweed's graceful fronds,
The pearl-forming ostrea is clinging on."
"Edwin, they are bright and fair;
There are pearls more pure, more rare
Than the fairest formed 'neath tropic seas.
Oh! Edwin, there are richer pearls than these;
They are not hidden in the ocean caves,
They are not sunk under fathomless waves;
Pearls of price, that none need buy,—
They are given to all that for them cry!
Cling to the 'Word' from thy earliest youth,
And ever delight in its 'Sacred Truth';—
It will prove thy guide and stay
Through life's dark and rugged way!
Edwin, alas! I soon shall find a rest,
In yon wide ocean's stormy breast."