The Poetical Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck/To Louis Gaylord Clark, Esq.
TO LOUIS GAYLORD CLARK, ESQ.
’ve greeted many a bonny bride
On many a bridal day,
In homes serene and summer-skied,
Where Love’s spring-buds, with joy and pride
Had blossomed into May;
But ne’er on lovelier bride than thine
Looked these delighted eyes of mine,
And ne’er in happier bridal bower
Than hers, smiled rose and orange-flower
Through green leaves glad and gay,
When bridesmaids, grouped around her room,
In youth’s, in truth’s, in beauty’s bloom,
Entwined, with merry fingers fair,
Their garlands in her sunny hair;
Or bosomed them, with graceful art,
Above the beatings of her heart.
I well remember, as I stood,
Among that pleasant multitude,
A stranger, mateless and forlorn,
Pledged bachelor and hermit sworn,
That, when the holy voice had given,
In consecrated words of power,
The sanction of approving Heaven
To marriage-ring, and roof, and dower;
When she, a Wife, in matron pride,
Stood, life-devoted, at thy side;
When happy lips had pressed her cheek,
And happiest lips her “bonny mou’,”
And she had smiled with blushes meek,
On my congratulating bow,
A sunbeam, balmy with delight,
Entranced, subdued me, till I quite
Forget my anti-nuptial vow,
And almost asked, with serious brow
And voice of true and earnest tone,
The bridesmaid with the prettiest face
To take me, heart and hand, and grace
A wedding of my own.
Time’s years, it suits me not to say
How many, since that joyous day,
Have watched and cheered thee on thy way
O’er Duty’s chosen path severe,
And seen thee, heart and thought full grown,
Tread manhood’s thorns and tempters down,
And win, like Pythian charioteer,
The wreaths and race-cups of renown—
Seen thee, thy name and deeds, enshrined
Within the peerage-book of mind—
And seen my morning prophecy
Truth-blazoned on a noonday sky,
That he, whose worth could win a wife
Lovely as thine, at life’s beginning,
Would always wield the power, through life,
Of winning all things worth the winning.
Hark! there are songs on Summer’s breeze,
And dance and song in Summer’s trees,
And choruses of birds and bees
In Air, their world of happy wings;
What far-off minstrelsy, whose tone
And words are sweeter than their own,
Has waked these cordial welcomings?
’Tis nearer now, and now more near,
And now rings out like clarion clear.
They come—the merry bells of Fame!
They come—to glad me with thy name,
And borne upon their music’s sea,
From wave to wave melodiously,
Glad tidings bring of thine and thee.
They tell me that, Life’s tasks well done,
Ere shadows mark thy westering sun,
Thy Bark has reached a quiet shore,
And rests, with slumbering sail and oar,
Fast anchored near a cottage door,
Thy home of pleasantness and peace,
Of Love, with eyes of Heaven’s blue,
And Health, with cheek of rose’s hue,
And Riches, with “the Golden Fleece:”
Where she, the Bride, a Mother now,
Encircled round with sons and daughters,
Waits my congratulary bow
To greet her cottage woods and waters;
And thou art proving, as in youth,
By daily kindnesses, the truth
And wisdom of the Scottish rhyme—
“To make a happy fireside clime
For children and for wife,
Is the true pathos and sublime,”
And green and gold of Life.
From long-neglected garden-bowers
Come these, my songs’ memorial flowers,
With greetings from my heart, they come
To seek the shelter of thy home;
Though faint their hues, and brief their bloom,
And all unmeet for gorgeous room
Of “honor, love, obedience,
And troops of friends,” like thine.
I hope thou wilt not banish thence
These few and fading flowers of mine,
But let their theme be their defence,
The love, the joy, the frankincense,
And fragrance o’ Lang Syne.
