Alexandria Gazette

[FOR THE ALEXANDRIA GAZETTE.]

HUE AND CRY AFTER A MISSING DAMSEL.

Halloo! a lovely truant maid is missing from her home!
We watch for her from day to day, and yet she does not come!
'Tis fit we should, through all the earth, our grievous loss proclaim,
And publish, to remotest lands, the missing damsel's name!

Halloo! we must describe the garb in which she was arrayed,
When last she blessed our longing eyes, that young and blooming maid;
Her robe was of the radiant bow, to which the clouds give birth,
When gentle show'rs have fertilized the freshly verdant earth;
The sunbeams wreathed around her brow a diadem so bright,
That nature wove a dewy veil to spare the gazer's sight:
Where'er she pass'd, beneath her feet, a thousand flow'rets sprang,
And at her voice, responsively, the birds their matins sang!
The wood-dove coo'd her plaintive note, the whisp'ring waters play'd!
The balmy air breathed cheerily, the wintry winds were stay'd!

Halloo! for nature's favor'd child, how will she bear the shock,
The missing of this lovely maid, the youngling of her flock?
The mother's smiles are quench'd in tears, all wan and pale she grieves,
No teeming blossoms deck her brows, half hid in circling leaves;
Her bounteous hands no boons dispense of fair and fragrant flow'rs,
A pallid snow-drop here and there in sickly beauty cow'rs.

Halloo! the maid, perchance, has slept, she cannot leave our land!
We pine without the blessed gifts, she scatters from her hand!
No promised plenty clothes the earth, the husbandman complains,
His scatter'd seeds are blasted by the chilly dews and rains:
Where'er we cast our sadden'd eyes, the lands are brown and bare,
Nor have we felt thro' tedious weeks, the balmy vernal air.

Halloo! yet stay: we shall not miss that truant damsel long!
Bright Summer soon will fill her place, she comes with mirth and song!
Yet never can our hearts consent! Oh no! we cannot bring
Our constant hearts to yield for aye! that blessed creature SPRING!

Alexandria, May 8, 1841.
C.