The Rhode Island American, And General Advertiser

Miscellany.

The unaffected tenderness of the following Stanzas, written, it is presumed, in commemoration of a deceased friend, should redeem any defect of poetical composition which criticism may discover:

FOR THE RHODE-ISLAND AMERICAN.

ELIZA.

When kind affection warms the soul,
And binds the heart in soft control,
There is a feeling none can know,
But those that share the genial glow.
In bright anticipation seen,
Life's future prospects look serene;
The tranquil joy that love can give,
Within the raptured bosom live
Immortal hopes the soul inspire
And light a flame of holy fire.
When death the union bond divides,
And sadness o'er the scene presides,
No plaintive strain of words reveals
The tender grief the mourner feels;
'Tis all—but only by the heart
Divided from its better part.
Now gone forever from my sight,
Departed Love, and best Delight!
How bleeds the heart that did enshrine
Another, pure and good as thine!
Those virtues that with thee expired,
Are still more valued and admired;
Those blessings won in transports gay,
Shone brighter as they passed away.
Ever memorial that I see,
And all I lately shared with thee,
Now throw across the lurid mind
A cloud of sorrow more refined.
Though in remembrance be distress,
I deprecate forgetfulness.
Our social walks at evening hour,
When twilight shed its mildest power—
Our cheerful days and tranquil nights,
And all our innocent delights,
On memory's tablet long shall live,
And melancholy pleasures give.
When slumber from my pillow flies,
And midnight veils the vaulted skies,
Faith's piercing vision sees afar,
Beyond the orb of every star,
Thy sanctified spirit freed from care,
In robes of glory happy there.