The Virginian

IN rosy Tints Aurora's Lamp
Gleams on the clouds and vapours damp
That, slumbering on the verge o' night,
Catch the last blushes lingering light,

Her dewy hair with orient gales
On the golden hills of day
While yet her mild forehead wears
A sparkling coronet of stars

Dear hour of mirth, and social cheer
What sounds of gladness meet the ear
What tinkling e'er did merry din
Welcome the Christmas morning in

In other joy and chastened mirth
Devoted long before its birth,
May this glad day with bounty large
Pay tribute to his august charge,

And tho' he urg'd his rapid car
In haste to meet the evening star,
And mingle in the western sky
With an eternity gone by,

Let mirth and pleasure speed him on,
And linger long when he is gone.

Friends of the Press! your guardian power,
Your beacon torch on Freedom's tower:
Friends of the Muse whose strains if high
Whether at Wither North or Ayne's

Friends of the town whose patriot zeal
Beats ardent for the common weal,
Mid the gay pageants of the day
Alas! how soon they pass away,

Mid the glad sounds that round you rise
A moment pause and moralize.

Here active Commerce gathers wealth.
Heaven gives that riches—blessings, health,
And beauty no where richer seen
Blooms with almost an Angel's mien,

Where e'er her ever smiles
What strange extremes pain to men
He r, Grandeur rears her lofty dome
There, Penury finds—a cheerless home.

Prosperity rears in his tower
While want proud and crush the poor
Thus day let ever heart exult
And scatter joy with liberal hand,

And sympathetic sorrow fly
To soothe the pangs of helpless woe
Some to search Christmas day
Outrun its predecessor by

So be mon day this she array'd
In splendour that can never fade.

And when he hies him to go down
From orange sweet anthems from her crown;
And Worth and Wand Beauty gain,
And wear them till he comes again.