Stanzas To Augusta.[438]

When all around grew drear and dark,[sn] And reason half withheld her ray-- And Hope but shed a dying spark Which more misled my lonely way; In that deep midnight of the mind, And that internal strife of heart, When dreading to be deemed too kind, The weak despair--the cold depart; When Fortune changed--and Love fled far,[so] And Hatred's shafts flew thick and fast, Thou wert the solitary star[sp] Which rose and set not to the last.[sq] Oh! blest be thine unbroken light! That watched me as a Seraph's eye, And stood between me and the night, For ever shining sweetly nigh. And when the cloud upon us came,[sr] Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray--[ss] Then purer spread its gentle flame,[st] And dashed the darkness all away. Still may thy Spirit dwell on mine,[su] And teach it what to brave or brook-- There's more in one soft word of thine Than in the world's defied rebuke. Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,[sv] That still unbroke, though gently bent, Still waves with fond fidelity Its boughs above a monument. The winds might rend--the skies might pour, But there thou wert--and still wouldst be Devoted in the stormiest hour To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me. But thou and thine shall know no blight, Whatever fate on me may fall; For Heaven in sunshine will requite The kind--and thee the most of all. Then let the ties of baffled love Be broken--thine will never break; Thy heart can feel--but will not move; Thy soul, though soft, will never shake. And these, when all was lost beside, Were found and still are fixed in thee:-- And bearing still a breast so tried, Earth is no desert--ev'n to me.

[First published, Poems, 1816.]