A Monody

I. A tear ! a tear ! A hope ! a fear ! Like ripples on the stream, Like moonlight's fading beam, They come - they pass Ah me ! Alas ! This life is vapor, A fiickering taper ! In flowing sympathies, in surging sorows, Iu hopeful ecstacie3, in glad to-morrows, Its rapid current runs its mystic race. And man at last awakes in Death's embrace. II. A truth ! a lie ! A joy a sigh ! ' Flow mingled in a wave That swallows, as the grave, Both good and 111, Mysteiious, still Its surface shining, Its depths repining, With mingled passions that can never rest, The heart is throbbing in the troubled breast. Eagor for joy, ít seizes present pain, And worships phantom follies o'er again. UI. A birth ! a breath '. A toil ! a death ! ïhen opea the silent tomb ïo which all flesh must come. And life íb done, lts goal is won ; Dreams all are ended, Strength all expended. In awful silence now the dust asleep Throbs with no love, nor heeds ii friendship weep; The marble cold, the flower encircled knoll Conceal and guard the palace of a soid. IV. A soul ! and sin I Ah how ? and when Shall these disparted be 8 What holy ministry Aas weeping heaven In mercy given ? A loving Presence shines upon our night, Incarnate truth diffuses living light ; Man dies to sin, then dies no more forever, But dwells in God, to be dissevered never.