I.
When all around grew drear and dark,
And reason half withheld her ray
And hope but shed a dying spark
Which more misled my lonely way;
II.
In that deep midnight of the mind,
And that internal strife of heart,
When dreading to be deem'd too kind,
The weak despair--the cold depart;
III.
When fortune changed--and love fled far
And hatred's shafts flew thick and fast
Thou wert the solitary star
Which rose and set not to the last.
IV.
Oh! blest be thine unbroken light!
That watch'd me as a seraph's eye,
And stood between me and the night,
For ever shining sweetly nigh.
V.
And when the cloud upon us came,
Which strove to blacken o'er thy ray
Then purer spread its gentle flame,
And dash'd the darkness all away.
VI.
Still may thy spirit dwell on mine,
And teach it what to brave or brook
There's more in one soft word of thine
Than in the world's defied rebuke.
VII.
Thou stood'st, as stands a lovely tree,
That still unbroke though gently bent,
Still waves with fond fidelity
Its boughs above a monument.
VIII.
The winds might rend--the skies might pour,
But there thou wert--and still wouldst be
Devoted in the stormiest hour
To shed thy weeping leaves o'er me.
IX.
But thou and thine shall know no blight,
Whatever fate on me may fall;
For heaven in sunshine will requite
The kind--and thee the most of all.
X.
Then let the ties of bated love
Be broken--thine will never break;
Thy heart can feel--but will not move
Thy soul, though soft, will never shake.
And these, when all was lost beside,
Were found and still are fix'd in thee;
And bearing still a breast so tried,
Earth is no desert--ev'n to me.
