LOVE, JOY, AND PLEASURE.
AN ALLEGORY,
(Written in her fifteenth year)
The night was calm, the sky serene, The sea a mirror display'd, On its bosom the twinkling stars were seen, The moon-crested waves were dancing between, And smiling through evening's shade.
On that placid sea Pleasure's bark was riding, Love and Joy were its guides through the deep, And their hearts beat high, while on fortune confiding, They smil'd at the forms that were gloomily striding, O'er the brow of the wave-wash'd steep.
Those forms were Malice, and Scorn, and Hate, And they flitted around so dark, That they seem'd like the gloomy sisters of Fate, Intent on some dreary, some deadly debate, To ruin the beautiful bark.