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Breezes of song from Mount Pleasant, poems
Breezes of song from Mount Pleasant poems Author:George Johnson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: TO MY MOTHER. 0 nearest and dearest, who gavest me birth! Not once, even once, have I sung of thy worth : But since it hath struck me, my harp I will string, ... more »And if thou'lt come hither sweet muse we will siug. She comes sweetly smiling—how graceful her mien! She sees thee just now as-thou wert at eighteen ; When thy golden tresses in ringlets did dangle, And as if in play did each other entangle About thy fair shoulders—and oft one would creep, O'er the parting upon thy fair bosom to sleep. Where since I have slept—ah! so near to thy heart! Of which, tho' much harder, mine own is a part. O spirit of tenderness, kindness, and love, Envelop my soul, and forbid it to rove ; For where is the theme more deserving my powers Than she who has nourished them in painful hours ? O thou at whose bosom I sucked when a babe, How tenderly didst thou, when down I was laid, Watch over and pleadingly pray for God's blessing "Upon my soft slumbers to make them refreshing. How did'st thou, almost ere I'd learned to lisp, Teach me to repeat, till a word was not missed, My evening prayer, which I still well remember, And shall do till I of the dead am a member. And when in the morning my eyelids unclosed, My heart leaping lightly, made light by repose, How didst thou remind me 'twas God who had blest, And taught me to thank Him for a good night's rest. And when I had grown a boy bigger and stronger, With my hand in thine thro' the fields we did wander, Thou taught'st me to say—not exactly these words— " The cattle upon all the hills are the Lord's." 0 mother! how dear to my heart wast thou then ! As dear art thou now, tho' I'm ranked among men : Tho' all the affections of then I can't show, Yet still in my bosom they've ceased not to glow. And will not as long as the ...« less