Richmond Enquirer

THE WEDDING.

The bright beings I saw, in unsorrowing youth,
Pledge their holiest vows in the language of truth
And declare that while life's bounding pulses should roll
Thus lastingly—soul should be blended with soul.

He stood in the pride of his youth—a fair form—
His spirit yet noble—his feelings yet warm
An Eagle—to shelter the Dove with his wing—
An Elm—where the light twining tendrils might cling.

Some dark curling tresses—a beautiful braid,
Interwoven with flowers, on her forehead was laid;
A pure golden chain o'er her white neck was thrown,
And a pale azure girdle encircled her zone.

Her robe was as white as the ocean-wave's foam,
Or as snow when it rests in its far away home,
Ere it leaves the high heavenly place of its birth
To melt and be lost on our desolate earth.

And I thought too, while silently gazing on them,
That their bosoms were brightened with love's peerless gem
And that hope had thrown over life's thorn-planted way,
Her loveliest bloom and her sunniest ray—

That laughing-eyed Joy had just routed old Care,
And, crowned with new roses, was revelling there;
He smiled, and declared that his day should not end
While Music would soothe him or Beauty would tend.

I sighed too, to think, and I trembled, to fear,
That Love might be jogging in one little year.
That Hope's mountain rose might soon wither and fade,
And Joy in the cold grave of Sorrow be laid.

But I prayed and I hoped that it might not be so,
That still they should love both in weal and in woe,
And the chain they have linked in life's sorrowless prime,
Might not be corroded nor weakened by time.

E.