27.05.2007, 13:50
Illustration of a Cameo
The device a female figure writing,
while an Angel feeds the Lamp.
Steal softly in, for she, who sitteth there,
Pale in her watching, mindless of the night,
Alone with that faint taper’s gleaming light,
Thus findeth refuge from a world of care.
Oh! twine no chaplet for her brow; no voice
That tells of fame can make her heart rejoice!
She giveth form to visions of delight,
That throng the simple hearth-stone, and the soul
Alive to genial promptings, and would ask
Requitance of the same for her sweet task.
And should a cadence born of sorrow roll
Along a voice she may not all control,
Yet not the less an angel lurketh nigh
To feed life’s flickering lamp, and heavenward lift the eye.
The device a female figure writing,
while an Angel feeds the Lamp.
Steal softly in, for she, who sitteth there,
Pale in her watching, mindless of the night,
Alone with that faint taper’s gleaming light,
Thus findeth refuge from a world of care.
Oh! twine no chaplet for her brow; no voice
That tells of fame can make her heart rejoice!
She giveth form to visions of delight,
That throng the simple hearth-stone, and the soul
Alive to genial promptings, and would ask
Requitance of the same for her sweet task.
And should a cadence born of sorrow roll
Along a voice she may not all control,
Yet not the less an angel lurketh nigh
To feed life’s flickering lamp, and heavenward lift the eye.