Virginia Argus. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1796-1816, 1815-07-01
ON rHE DOVES LEAVING TUE ARK.

ON THE DOVES LEAVING TIE ARK.
rom Peens lately ta6Ested By Miss HuNTLr
young tady Of Connecticut.
STILL did AN unseen Being guide
The lonely vessel DER the tide,
And still, with steady prov, it braves
The fury of the foaming waves
While fierce the deluge pours its stream
The thunders roll--the meteors CLEAN,
When Oceans mighty cisterns break,
And earth like rent cottage shake,
and slowly as its axle turn'd,
The wat'ry planet mov'd and mourn'd;
Though trembling at the tempests lie,
Or schorching in the hghtning's fne,
While holding in her firm embrace
The remnant of wasted race,
Sdll DER the waves the wandering frk
Roam'd like some lone, deserted bark.
But now the storm has hush'd its ire,
The warning elements retire
Aid from his curtains dusk and dun
Look'd forth, once more, tn astonish'd sun.
What saw he there Young Natures face
With smiles, and Joy, and beauty far
No! not one feature could he trace
To tell him life was ever there;
Save when that little bark was seen
To shew him where her pride had been.
Cut now from that secure abode
wing'd stranger went,
And from the easement open'd wide
joyful fight she bent:
High mounting seem'd to seek the sky
With forward breast and sparkling eye,
Like captive set at liberty.
So went the dove on GRAND kind,
To seek mansion for mankind,
Though scarce her meek eye dared to trace
The horrors ofthat dreadful place.
The waves with white and curling head
Swept above the silent dead,
The heaving biliows' dashing surge
He scarcely swell'd the hollow drge:
The heavy weight of waters prest
The mighty nrorsArch's Wondering breast,
The giant chief the sceptred hand, 4
The lip that poul'd the loud command; =
The blooming cheek-the sparkling eye,
Now shrouded in the sea weed lie.
But still the pensive stranger spread
Her white wing Ger that Ocean dread,
And oft her anxious eve she cast
Across the dark and shoreless waste.
For evening clad the skies in gloom,
And warn'd her Other distant home,
The stars that gemm'd the brow of night
GLANCED coldly on her wavering fight,
In tears, the moon with trembling CLEAN
Withdrew her faint and faded beam,
And DER that vast and silent grave
Was spread the dark and boundless wave.
With beating heart and anxious ear,
She strove some earthly sound to hear,
In vain--no earthly sound was near.
II seem'd the worlds eternal sleep
Had settled Ger that gloomy deep,
Nor slightest breath her bosom cheer'd,
Her own soft wings alone she heard.
But still that fearful dove preserv'd,
With unabating care,
The olive leat-.the type of peace
All fragrant, fresh and fair.
With pain her weary wing she st,etch'd
Over the pillows wide,
And oft her painting bosom dropp'd
Upon the briny tide.
The image of her absent mate,
That cheer'd her as she strove with fate,
Grew darker on her eye;
1tseem'd as if she heard him mourn,
For one who never must return,
In broken minsrelsy.
4 g ClS hSl plilOIlS CSaS u Uneu IllSnl,
Or clos'd her eye in endless night,
A hand the weary wanderer priest
And drew her to the ark ofrest.
Oh! welcome to thy peaceful home,
No more DER that wild waste to roam.
When from the cell OF pain and woe,
Like that weak dove my soul shall go,
And trembling still her fight shall urge,
Along this dark worlds doubtful verge,
Ger the cold food, and foaming surge,
Then may the shrinking stranger spy
A pierc'd hand stretching from the sky,
Then hear voice in accents blest,
Return--retuTn unto thy rest"
Long prison'd in a hayward cline,
Long wounded with the thorns of time;
Long child by the wild storms that pour
Around that dark daceitful shore,
EEter-where thorns shall wound and tempests
rage no more.
THE ORPHANS.
he following is artless, and pathetic in the
highest degree ard is one of those perforrnan