Poems of Felicia Hemans in The Casket, 1829/To an Orphan

by Felicia Hemans

TO AN ORPHAN.

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Thou hast been rear'd too tenderly,
    Belov'd too well and long,
Watch'd by too many a gentle eye:
    Now look on life—be strong!

Too quiet seem'd thy joys for change,
    Too holy and too deep;
Bright clouds, thro' summer skies that range,
    Seem oft times thus to sleep;

To sleep, in silvery stillness bound,
    As things that ne'er may melt:
Yet gaze again—no trace is found
    To show thee where they dwelt.

This world hath no more love to give
    Like that which thou hast known;
Yet the heart breaks not—we survive
    Our treasures—and bear on.

But oh! too beautiful and blest
    Thy home of youth hath been;
Where shall thy wing, poor bird! find rest,
    Shut out from that sweet scene?

Kind voices from departed years
    Must haunt thee many a day;
Looks, that will smite the source of tears,
    Across thy soul must play.

Friends—now the alter'd or the dead—
    And music that is gone,
A gladness o'er thy dreams will shed,
    And thou shalt wake alone.

Alone!—it is in that deep word
    That all thy sorrow lies;
How is the heart to courage stirr'd
    By smiles from kindred eyes!

And are these lost? and have I said
    To aught like thee—be strong?
So bid the willow lift its head,
    And brave the tempest's wrong!

Thou reed! o'er which the storm hath pass'd,
    Thou, shaken with the wind,
On one, one friend, thy weakness cast,
    There is but One to bind.

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