Jenks's Portland Gazette

MUSES.

If our readers have a taste for truly elegant
poetry, I think they must be charmed with the following
extract from the "PLEASURES OF HOPE."

D.

Oh! that would ask a heart to dulness wed,
The wave-less calm, the slumbers of the dead?
No: the wild bliss of Nature needs alloy,
And tear and sorrow fan the fire of joy!
And say, without our hopes, without our fears,
Without the home that plighted love endears,
Without the smiles from partial beauty won,
O! what were men -- A world without a sun!
Till Hymen brought his love-delighted hour,
There dwelt no joy in Eden's rosy bower!
In vain the viewless seraph, lingering there,
At starry midnight, charmed the silent air;
In vain the wild-bird carolled on the steep,
To hail the sun, slow wheeling from the deep;
In vain, to soothe the solitary shade,
Aerial notes in mingling measure played;
The summer wind that shook the spangled tree,
The whispering wave, the murmur of the bee--
Still sadly passed the melancholy day,
And till the stranger's swift step neared, no ray
The world was sad! -- the garden was a wild!
And man, the hermit, sighed -- till Woman smiled.

True! the sad power to generous hearts may bring
Delirious anguish on his fiery wing!
Barred from delight by Fate's untimely hand,
By wealthless lot, or pitiless command;
Or doomed to gaze on beauties that adorn
The smiles of triumph, or the frown of scorn;
While Memory watches o'er the sad review
Of joys that faded like the morning dew!
Peace may depart -- and Nature seem
A barren path -- a wilderness, and a dream!