Kentucky Gazette

AIR—Unknown.

And doth not a meeting like this make amends
For all the long years I've been wandering away,
To see thus around me my youth's early friends,
As smiling and kind as in that happy day!

Tho' haply o'er some of your brows, as o'er mine,
The snow fall of time may be stealing—what then!
Like Alps in the sun set, thus lighted by wine,
We'll wear the gay tinge of youth's roses again.

What soften'd remembrances come o'er the breast
In gazing on those we've been lost to so long,
The sorrows, the joys of which once they were part,
Still round them like visions of yesterday throng

As letters some hand hath invisibly traced,
When held to the flame, will steal out on the sight,
So many a feeling that long seem'd effaced,
The warmth of a meeting like this brings to light

And thus, as in memory's bark we shall glide
To visit the scene of our boyhood anew,
Tho' oft we may see, looking down on the tide,
The wreck of full many a hope shining thro',

Yet still as in fancy we point to the flowers,
That once made a garden of all the gay shore,
Deceiv'd for a moment we think the still ours,
And breathe the fresh air of life's morning once more.

So bright our existence, a glimpse at the most
Is all we can have of the friends we hold dear;
And oft even joy is unheeded and lost,
For want of some heart that could echo it near.

Alas! we may hope when this short life is gone,
To meet in some world of more permanent bliss;
For a smile, or a grasp of the hand, hast'ning on,
Is all we enjoy of each other in this

But come—the more rare such delights to the heart
The more we should welcome, and bless them the more;
They're ours when we meet—they are lost when we part—
Like birds that bring summer, and fly when 'tis o'er.

Thus circling the cup, hand in hand, ere we drink
Let sympathy pledge us thro' pleasure, thro' pain
That fast as a feeling but touches one link,
Her magic shall send it direct thro' the chain