Page:Poems Hoffman.djvu/26

She softens sorrow with a plaintive grace,
Envelopes death in twilight's mystic spell,
Weird lights and shades through all her working chase
And glory lingers where she loves to dwell.

Deep in the ocean's fathomless abyss
She delves for pearls and visits briny caves,
Paints the bright sea-shells, enters to possess
The empire where the coral garden waves;

Gathers rare blooms unknown to sunny climes
And mosses in perpetual dampness sown,
Bears them aloft to Thought's immortal shrines
And claims the storms' dominion for her own.

Myriads hear the music of her voice
But few can grasp her deathless melody,
Many can see her beauty and rejoice
But few have power for other eyes to see.

Thousands can feel her presence and the spell
She sheds throughout the precincts of the heart,
But few her subtile influence can tell
And none can teach her teachings but in part;

For her sublimest songs no language find
That eloquence can conquer and control,
She writes them on the tablets of the mind,
They find an echo only in the soul;

But not alone for gladness has she songs,
She loves the storm and mighty ocean surge,
Varied emotion to her lyre belongs,
Her happiest song is followed by the dirge.

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