New Hampshire Statesman And Concord Register

POETRY.

FOR THE STATESMAN
REGISTER.

THE LILY.

O! gently curl thou rising wave!
Along the water's breast of blue.
Thou ruffling billow softly lave
The flower that on thy bosom grew.
Its crest is gleaming with the tear
That twilight gives to parting day,
When all the graces of the year
Smile on the brow of lovely May.
O! safely blooms the beauteous flower,
On fragrant mead and dewy vale,
And heaven distils its softest shower
O'er incense-breathing lawn and dale
Then why, fair offspring of the wave!
Sweet child of fragile loveliness!
Like beauty leaning on the grave—
Pale and resign'd in deep distress;
Why should the storm on thee alone
Lower with a dark, relentless frown
Why is the smile of morning flown
Transient as Iris' roseate crown?
Alas! thy virgin hue must fade—
Thy beauty droop—thy fragrance die—
But morning's ray and evening's shade
Shall waft thy tints along the sky.
The breezes soon shall softly breathe,
The bird of eve renew her strain,
The graces twine the rosy wreath,
The lake's blue surface smile again—
But all thy dying sweets recline
Neglected on the barren wave,
As beauty's tear does sweetly shine,
Dropp'd on the solitary grave.
And every leaf so pure, so white.
No more shall greet the fragrant air;
No more shall smile in virgin light,
Rock'd on the curl that rippled there.
So sweetly Innocence expires,
And being's last and faintest ray,
Is calm as morning's earliest fires,
That gemmed the orient wings of day.
And though the struggling tear may dim
The deep elysian of her eye,
As dew drops shade the violet's brim,
With softness gathered from the sky;
And though a withering paleness throws
A cheerless—a portentous gloom
Along the evanescent rose,
That lights the borders of the tomb;
Still she serenely—greatly dies,
Resigns her life to Him that gave,
And calmly looks beyond the skies,
And smiles upon the opening grave
A.