Poems (Louisa Blake)/God our Refuge

GOD OUR REFUGE.

Oh! would my sorrowing heart could fling
Its grief away;
And feel, as felt it in its spring,
Joyous and gay;

When friends beloved their love express'd,
In music's tone,
And all that makes the young heart bless'd,
I called my own;

When busy thought would seek to stretch
Through life's long day,
And fancy's vivid pencil sketch
A flowery way;

As onward in a path of light
Her feet would roam,
And paint in colors false as bright,
The time to come.

Ere the cold world had bid repress
The gushing tide,
Of childhood's holy tenderness,
Which flows so wide;

Ere hope, which cast her cheering beam
On all my way,
Changed to a pale and sickly gleam—
A feeble ray;

And Oh! ere fond hearts grew estranged,
And love's soft tone,
To cold and withering accents changed,
Told friendship gone.

But is there none when cold decay
Nips friendship's bloom,
No friend in all my weary way,
But the lone tomb?

Yes, there is One, who will not scorn
The stricken heart,
If it hath ever meekly borne
Its bitter part.

By firmer ties the heart is bound
When earth's are riven,
There is a balm for every wound
Above, in Heaven.