Poems and Essays

by Joseph Howe

SONG.
Oh! calm be your rest—may the Spirit of Dreams In her gayest attire, steal over your brain, Till the splendor of morning’s enlivening beams, Awakes you with smiles to bewitch us again. Oh! calm be your rest—may each vision that springs,	5
Be right as the hues which o’er Eden were spread, While Sleep, from his lightest and downiest wings Around you his slumber-steep’d poppies shall shed. [Page 109] Oh! calm be your rest—while your lids gently close, Like the leaves of the Lily when sunlight has flown,	10
And a flush, like the delicate tint which the Rose Wears at eve, o’er your cheek in its stillness is thrown. Oh! calm be your rest—may your thoughts steal along If in sleep they intrude, like some silvery rill, Which at night never ceases to murmur its song,	15
But wanders ’mid blossoms and flow’rets still. Oh! calm be your rest—but while kneeling in prayer, When the glow of devotion is kindled most bright, Let a thought of your lover be lingering there, And his name, ’mid your orisons, fondly take flight. [Page 110]	20