The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Margaret Chandler/To a Particular Friend

by Elizabeth Margaret Chandler

To a Particular Friend

“We took sweet counsel together, we went to the
house of the Lord in company.”——Psalms.

We've sat beside the forest stream,
And watch'd the bright wave rippling by,
Now flashing back the summer beam,
Then dark'ning like a half-shut eye,
As whispering to the joyous breeze,
Down closer bent the shadowing trees.

Thy hand was clasp'd in mine, my friend,
And heart to heart was answering then;
Although, perchance, our tones might send
No echo down the rocky glen—
Or if we spoke, 't was language fraught
With all the others’ voiceless thought.

Oh! it was sweet to linger there,
Beneath a sky so purely blue,
And breathe the gather'd sweets, the air
Had stolen from flowers it wander'd through—
How could there come a thought of ill
Amidst a scene so calm and still!

But yet, a holier chord than this,
Around our breasts its power hath twined;
And though, perchance, those hours of bliss
May fade, like moonlight, from the mind,
Can love aside be careless cast,
O'er which the breath of prayer hath past?

Oh, no! and though not oft we meet,
Within the house of worship now,—
The hours may come, less calm and sweet
Than those beneath the greenwood bough;
Those hearts may ne'er be wholly riven,
Which side by side have bow'd to Heaven