Page:Poems Taggart.djvu/60

12

'T is long since Summer's early dawn,
 That breaks the shades of night,
And the gay, smiling, blooming morn
 Have cheered my aching sight;—

When songs of sweeter harmony
Than night's soft chanted melody
 Salute the captive ear;
And far soft slumber's bondage flies
From off the glad, rejoicing eyes,
 And joys unveiled appear.

'T is long since at the winter hearth,
 When friends and kindred meet
In serious joy, and playful mirth,
 I held a happy seat,—

And turned beside the taper's light
 The instructive pages o'er,
Or heard the wise discourse of age,
Or read with awe the sacred page
 And felt its quick'ning power;—
Then joined the joyous vocal strain,
While fast against the sheltering pane
Dash the large, pattering drops of rain,
 Or wild winds blustering roar.

O Health, thy succouring aid extend,
While low, with bleeding heart, I bend,
And on thine every means attend,