In dark Plutonian caves, Beneath the lowest deep, go, hide thy head; Or earth thee where the blood that thou hast shed May trickle on thee from thy countless graves! Take with thee all thy gloom And guilt, and all our griefs, save what the breast, Without a wrong to some dear shadowy guest, May not surrender even to the tomb. No tear shall weep thy fall, When, as the midnight bell doth toll thy fate, Another lifts the sceptre of thy state, And sits a monarch in thine ancient hall. HIM all the hours attend, With a new hope like morning in their eyes; Him the fair earth and him these radiant skies Hail as their sovereign, welcome as their friend. Him, too, the nations wait; "O lead us from the shadow of the Past," In a long wail like this December blast, They cry, and, crying, grow less desolate. How he will shape his sway They ask not--for old doubts and fears will cling-- And yet they trust that, somehow, he will bring A sweeter sunshine than thy mildest day. Beneath his gentle hand They hope to see no meadow, vale, or hill Stained with a deeper red than roses spill, When some too boisterous zephyr sweeps the land. A time of peaceful prayer, Of law, love, labor, honest loss and gain-- These are the visions of the coming reign Now floating to them on this wintry air. Stanzas: A Mother Gazes Upon Her Daughter, Arrayed for an Approaching Bridal. Written in Illustration of a Tableau Vivant Is she not lovely! Oh! when, long ago, My own dead mother gazed upon my face, As I stood blushing near in bridal snow, I had not half her beauty and her grace. Yet that fond mother praised, the world caressed, And ONE adored me--how shall HE who soon Shall wear my gentle flower upon his breast, Prize to its utmost worth the priceless boon? Shall he not gird her, guard her, make her rich, (Not as the world is rich, in outward show,) With all the love and watchful kindness which A wise and tender manhood may bestow? Oh! I shall part from her with many tears, My earthly treasure, pure and undefiled! And not without a weight of anxious fears For the new future of my darling child. And yet--for well I know that virgin heart-- No wifely duty will she leave undone; Nor will her love neglect that woman's art Which courts and keeps a love already won. In no light girlish levity she goes Unto the altar where they wait her now, But with a thoughtful, prayerful heart that knows The solemn purport of a marriage vow. And she will keep, with all her soul's deep truth, The lightest pledge which binds her love and life; And she will be--no less in age than youth My noble child will be--a noble wife.