And soon above the loosened earth

Her soft green leaflets flutter;
While bird and bee with guileless mirth
Their welcome gayly utter.

And yet again the Rain-Drop comes
And patters round her lightly;
The whirring insect softly hums,
The glow-worm sees her nightly.

The summer wind with sweetest breath
Doth vainly strive to woo her;

The lady's deaf to all he saith,

And turns from her pursuer.

But towards the Sun, the summer Sun,
The plant is ever bending;
For him her blossoms one by one
Open, their perfume sending.

For did he not from earth and gloom
To light and day restore her?
And is not his her richest bloom
As daily he bends o'er her?

LIFE.

Oh! what is life? to dream of happiness;

To pass through Childhood like a merry bird; To have kind faces round the heart to bless;

A stream whose golden sands are never stirred.

What is life? to wake from this fond dreaming,
To have the spirit's eye to woe unsealed;
To mistrust Friendship for an outward seeming;
To have the grief and sins of earth revealed.

What is life? e'en as a child awaketh

On a bright morn with pleasures round him spread And all too soon a powerful hand him taketh, And leads th' unwilling sobbing child to bed.

So man too oft to life's poor treasures clings,
When Death would lead him to a quiet sleep;
Putting away the robe, a kind hand brings,
Contented still life's shabby dress to keep!

THE OLD SLAVE'S CURSE.

An old slave sat at the close of day,

Too weary for slumber, too hopeless to pray;
In thankless toil had his life passed away.

Many a crop had he wrung from the soil,

His hands were large and horny with toil,

He had fought Labor's Battle; but where was the spoil?

He had worked in the garden, picked in the field,
Raised the vine's clusters, the harvest's rich yield;
Loads of ripe fruit he had carted and wheeled.

All his food was hominy, oft without salt;
But the minister said he must not find fault,
And ne'er in the path of his duty must halt.

And what were his wages for life's weary years?
A suit of blue homespun, hard stripes and salt tears,
And a rod for his soul through the gospel's stern fears.

His wife, no,- companion, was torn from his arms; For rich men had eyes and could pay for her charms; And the Law was not made for a chattel's alarms!

His children, no,-animals, they were sold round,
Bringing "masser " high prices if warranted sound,
Regarded by "masser" like racer or hound!

The old slave sat at the close of day,

Too weary for slumber, too hopeless to pray,
And he thought of his life almost passed away,

And his spirit rose up from his long life-time wrong And broke forth in words by the winds borne along, Till the north and the south, east and west heard the wrong.

Cursed be Earth! when the man that sows the grain

And waters the furrows with blood like rain,

May never a competence hope to gain !

Cursed be the Earth!

Cursed be Earth! when he that raises the fruit
Is foddered and housed like the meanest brute,—
With hourly threat'nings and blows to suit!
Cursed be the Earth!

Cursed was Earth of old, when the first made bride
Walked forth to her doom by her husband's side;
But what were the curse, were the love denied?
Answer, O air!

Burdened with sighs and groans and wails!
If sound be photographed, write down the tales.
Before whose record humanity quails.-

Keep them, O air!

Cursed be the Earth! may the locusts of old
Encircle green fields with their withering fold,
And all slaves by Famine to Death be sold!
Cursed be the Earth!

Cursed be the Earth! may Pestilence stalk
Through hall and hovel with lordly walk,
And Life no more with its sufferings mock!

Cursed be the Earth!

SWEETHEART.

Sweet Heart! there's something in the word

That speaks of early bloom and flowers;

Of tangled grass by insects stirred,

Of wavy tree, of singing bird,

Of Summer's golden, sunny hours.

And down the lane of long ago

Two soft brown eyes so gently beam, While like rose-tints upon the snow, Athwart her cheek with sudden glow

Love's signal fires so brightly gleam.

Sweet Heart among the birds and flowers;
With tall, green hedges blossoming by,
Light fringing sprays begemmed with showers,
Green clust'ring buds, make fragrant bowers
To screen the pair from every eye.

The pair? ah! yes, for all were twain ;
The mites that lived beneath their tread,

The insects in the rustling grain,

The butterflies upon the plain,

The bird's soft warbling overhead.

Love hath its Eden - be it here,

Or in some deep, imagined dream, Where skies are always bright and clear, And Heaven bends down to earth so nearAnd Love tints all with rosy beam.

Sweet Heart! forth from the buried years
Come youthful faces glad with smiles,

With all of earthly bloom that cheers,
With sunny Hope, undimmed by tears,

That long, how long, the heart beguiles.