How softly sweet this zephyr night!
To Venus sends her brilliant light!
And Heav'n's inhabitants unite
Each kindly beam,
To put fell darkness' train to flight,
With gentle gleam.
The vessel's sides the waters wake,
And waveless as the bounded lake,
A solemn slumber seem to take
Extending wide;--
Along the ship they sparkling break
And gem the tide.
Midst such a scene, no thoughts can find
An entrance in the pensive mind,
But such as virtue has refined,
The past must smile--
And flatt'ring fancy will be kind,
And hope beguile.
Blest silence! solitary friend--
My thoughts with thee to _home_ I send;
And _there_ absorbed my sorrows end--
In vain I roam--
As blossoms to the day-star tend,
So I to home.
Not more I owe that glorious ray
That beams the blessing of the day;
Not more my gratitude I pay
For air and light--
Than for that Home now far away--
First, best delight.
A little while, and that blest spot,
From mem'ry shall raze each blot,
And all my wand'rings there forgot,
At last I'll rest--
No sorrow shall disturb the cot
So loved, so blest.
For the Southern Literary Messenger.