In The Firelight.

My dear wife sits beside the fire

With folded hands and dreaming eyes,

Watching the restless flames aspire,

And rapt in thralling memories.

I mark the fitful firelight fling

Its warm caresses on her brow,

And kiss her hands' unmelting snow,

And glisten on her wedding-ring.

The proud free head that crowns so well

The neck superb, whose outlines glide

Into the bosom's perfect swell

Soft-billowed by its peaceful tide,

The cheek's faint flush, the lip's red glow,

The gracious charm her beauty wears,

Fill my fond eyes with tender tears

As in the days of long ago.

Days long ago, when in her eyes

The only heaven I cared for lay,

When from our thoughtless Paradise

All care and toil dwelt far away;

When Hope in wayward fancies throve,

And rioted in secret sweets,

Beguiled by Passion's dear deceits, -

The mysteries of maiden love.

One year had passed since first my sight

Was gladdened by her girlish charms,

When on a rapturous summer night

I clasped her in possessing arms.

And now ten years have rolled away,

And left such blessings as their dower;

I owe her tenfold at this hour

The love that lit our wedding-day.

For now, vague-hovering o'er her form,

My fancy sees, by love refined,

A warmer and a dearer charm

By wedlock's mystic hands entwined, -

A golden coil of wifely cares

That years have forged, the loving joy

That guards the curly-headed boy

Asleep an hour ago upstairs.

A fair young mother, pure as fair,

A matron heart and virgin soul!

The flickering light that crowns her hair

Seems like a saintly aureole.

A tender sense upon me falls

That joy unmerited is mine,

And in this pleasant twilight shine

My perfect bliss myself appals.

Come back! my darling, strayed so far

Into the realm of fantasy, -

Let thy dear face shine like a star

In love-light beaming over me.

My melting soul is jealous, sweet,

Of thy long silence' drear eclipse;

O kiss me back with living lips,

To life, love, lying at thy feet!