Palladium Of Virginia And The Pacific Monitor

POETICAL.

WOMAN.

When youth's light soul is bounding free
Unknown to guile—untainted by art,
The age of love is fix'd on thee
Fair idol of the heart,—
Thou art the early golden light
Which skirts the morning sky;—
The sun of life all warm and bright,
That meets the raptur'd eye.

Child of the gay and gleaming heaven,
Sent down to bless us here,
To thee the glorious boon is given
To check affliction's tear.

To watch o'er sorrow's wasting form,
And fight the beamless eve—
To soothe the heart no longer warm,
And calm the heaving sigh.

In love fond return in joyous youth,
To meet thy smile divine,
To rest upon thy love and truth;
And worship at thy shrine:

Sylph of a purer, brighter sphere;
From heaven's enchanted bowers
Thou cam'st—to make existence dear,
And deck its way with flowers.

Thine is the soul bewitching power
Of love's delightful thrill—
Thine is the soft and tranquil hour,
When each dark thought is still.

But thine is ne'er the heart of clay,
That spurns another's woe—
Glistens with feelings genial ray—
Cold as the mountain's snow.

To thee we fly with grief oppress'd—
And when the shaft takes wing—
Lo! when the arrow writhes the heart,
Thou healcst all its sting.

Woman, thou comest, charm of life.
A calm along its sea—
And the asylum from its strife.
Is only found in thee.