YOUTH RENEWED.

SPRING-FLOWERS, spring-birds, spring-breezes,

Are felt, and heard, and seen;

Light trembling transport seizes

With scenes and seasons far behind;

Childhood, its smiles and tears,
Youth, with its flush of years,

Its morning-clouds and dewy prime,
More exquisitely touch'd by Time.

Fancies again are springing,

Like May-flowers in the vales;
While hopes, long lost, are singing

From thorns, like nightingales;

And kindly spirits stir my blood,

Like vernal airs that curl the flood:
There falls to manhood's lot

A joy, which youth has not,

A dream more beautiful than truth, - Returning Spring renewing Youth.

Thus sweetly to surrender
The present for the past;
In sprightly mood, yet tender,

Life's burthen down to cast,

This is to taste, from stage to stage,

Youth on the lees refined by age:
Like wine well-kept and long,
Heady nor harsh, nor strong,
With every annual cup, is quaff'd
A richer, purer, mellower draught.

THE BRIDAL AND THE BURIAL.

"BLESSED is the bride whom the sun shines on; Blessed is the corpse which the rain rains on."

I saw thee young and beautiful,

I saw thee rich and gay,

In the first blush of womanhood,

Upon thy wedding-day :

"Flowers, flowers, kiss her feet;

Sweets to the sweet!

The winter's past, the rains are gone;

Blessed is the bride whom the sun shines on."

I saw thee poor and desolate,

I saw thee fade away,

In broken-hearted widowhood,

Before thy locks were gray;

The death-bell rang,

And the little children sang,

"Lilies, dress her winding-sheet;

Sweets to the sweet;

The summer's past, the sunshine gone ; Blessed is the corpse which the rain rains on.”

"Blessed is the bride whom the sun shines on; Blessed is the corpse which the rain rains on."