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FRIENDSHIP'S GIFT.

LINES TO FLORENCE.

WINTHROP M. PRAED.

LONG years have passed with silent pace,
Florence! since you and I have met;
Yet when that meeting I retrace,
My cheek is pale, my eye is wet;
For I was doomed from thence to rove
O'er distant tracts of earth and sea,

Unaided, Florence!

save by love;

And unremembered

save by thee!

We met! and hope beguiled our fears

Hope, ever bright, and ever vain;

We parted thence in silent tears,

Never to meet in life — again.

The myrtle that I gaze upon,
Sad token by thy love devised,
Is all the record left of one

So long bewailed-so dearly prized.
You gave it in an hour of grief,

When gifts of love are doubly dear; You gave it and one tender leaf Glistened the while with Beauty's tear.

A tear-oh! lovelier far to me,
Shed for me in my saddest hour,
Than bright and flattering smiles could be,
In courtly hall, or summer bower.
You strove my anguish to beguile

With distant hopes of future weal;
You strove! - alas! you could not smile,
Nor speak the hope you did not feel.
I bore the gift Affection gave,

O'er desert sand and thorny brake,
O'er rugged rock and stormy wave,
I loved it for the giver's sake;
And often in my happiest day,

In scenes of bliss and hours of pride,
When all around was glad and gay,

I looked upon the gift — and sighed :
And when on ocean, or on clift,
Forth strode the Spirit of the Storm,
I gazed upon thy fading gift,

I thought upon thy fading form;
Forgot the lightning's vivid dart,
Forgot the rage of sky and sea,
Forgot the doom that bade us part—
And only lived to love and thee.
Florence! thy myrtle blooms! but thou,
Beneath thy cold and lowly stone,
Forgetful of our mutual vow,

And of a heart-still all thine own

Art laid in that unconscious sleep,

Which he that wails thee soon must know, Where none may smile, and none may weep, None dream of bliss or wake to wo.

If e'er, as Fancy oft will feign,

To that dear spot which gave thee birth Thy fleeting shade returns again,

To look on him thou lov'dst on earth,