The Port Gibson herald, and correspondent. (Port Gibson, Claiborne Co., Miss.) 1848-18??, 1850-08-02
For The Herald d Correspondent.
To a Friend.

Written years ago under circumstances Of in
tense gloom.l
You ask ue why seem so sad,
Why nought is lightly spoke;
Ol can that heart be free and glad
Whose richest strings are broke?
Say, can the lip with laughter glow,
The eye with warm light beam,
When poison, with its deadly flow
Has colored life's deep stream!
Or can the heart bound mid the dance,
the step with lightness tread, [glance
When hope has flown meath falsehood'
When youths rich dreams are dead.
Ocan this'voice with mirth e'er ring
In joyous halls again;
Or can this heart e'er trusting cling,
When trust has brought such pain.
Why will it still, in yearning deep,
Seek round for friends to love,
Why here its freshest treasures keep,
When they are due above?
1t never trusted and believed
A thing of mortal breath,
But at the last it was deceived
Its faith laid down in death.
1t never poured its fervent rill
On aughtthat's here below,
Without there breathed some icy chill
To freeze its sparkling flow.
These fingers could not train the vine
The blushing rose OF Spring,
For fortune in its dark decline
Bade me in exile sing.
could not seek out early friends,
The homeless have not such
For love with riches often blends
But shrinks at wants pale touch.
With silken robe and costly gem,
Soft smiles oft could gain:
But once bereft of home and them
To hope for such was vain.
A thousand errors then were seen
Which ne'er were known before
Disrobed Of all their glitterng sheen
They could deceive no more.
The self-respecting mien and eye,
Was then termed naughty pride
What well became the heiress high,
Each false lip now could chide.
O!naught can rend perfecion's chain
Like loss Of wealth and poW'r,
1t chills the soft commencing strain,
The crowning g;&lands fow'r.
1t seals the pleading life of love
Unnerves the cordial hand;
1t shuts the halls where we could rove
AmUns tIIe gay aud grand.
Il clouds the mem'ry far and wide,
Df 4boca .rbno, opno Iva kuau-.
Fen those who smiling by our side
In JOYOUS childhood grew,
All yes, they gaze and know us not
They coldly pass US by
The lip is pale, they have forgot
The altered, saddened eye.
It learns the aching heart to know
Earths superficial ties,
And tells us, nothing pure below
Can cheer our languid eyes
But thought and tongue and heart be still
Why, why this murm'ring strain2
Have none but you cen felt the chill
OF long despairing pains
Have none but you e'er watched the eye
OF love and friendship change,
Have none but you e'er fingered nigh,
And wept while all grew strange!
Have none but you e'er left the home
The hearth Of youths fair morn,
Far, far from kindred graves to roam
Wronged, dropping and forlorn!
No, no, must not will not blame
Mans erring faulty ways,
His wisest views are ever lame
His purest motive strays.
But now you'll never, never ask
Why am ever sad,
Nor press the more than hopeless task
OF mingling with the glad.
You'll ne'er entreat my broken song,
With wailing notes to rise,
To fold happy brilliant throng
Mid its contagious sighs.
You'll let my wild erratic tread
Roam free and uncontrolled
You'll let me weep DER fair hopes fled,
For hearts long hushed or cold.
o! never, never mar the spell
Which seems so fraught with gloom;
No more thy kindly soothings tell
know and meet my doom.
Claiborne County, Mss. MARTHA