150
THE ORPHAN'S DREAM OF FAME.
Ay, happy, my lost mother was in heaven,
But Nature was my mother on the earth,
And both seemed e'er to love me well.
But Nature was my mother on the earth,
And both seemed e'er to love me well.
At length
There came a change. The maddening dream of fame,
The wish to shine among earth's proudest, took
Possession of my soul. No more I loved
The voice of birds, the shouting of the stream,
And the green surging of the woods. I bowed
In seeming admiration of the throng,
And felt my cheek burn and my pulses leap
To the vile breath of those I could but hate
Within my secret soul. The sneering thought
That started fiercely upward from my heart,
Brightened to smiles upon my lips; my brain
Grew dizzy, and the tear was in my eye,
If with rude hand my spirit's chords were jarred
By those I longed to spurn beneath my feet.
I wildly struggled for the world's applause,
But trembled at the faintest word of blame.
There came a change. The maddening dream of fame,
The wish to shine among earth's proudest, took
Possession of my soul. No more I loved
The voice of birds, the shouting of the stream,
And the green surging of the woods. I bowed
In seeming admiration of the throng,
And felt my cheek burn and my pulses leap
To the vile breath of those I could but hate
Within my secret soul. The sneering thought
That started fiercely upward from my heart,
Brightened to smiles upon my lips; my brain
Grew dizzy, and the tear was in my eye,
If with rude hand my spirit's chords were jarred
By those I longed to spurn beneath my feet.
I wildly struggled for the world's applause,
But trembled at the faintest word of blame.
