Songs Without Sense.
For the Parlor and Piano.
I.--The Personified Sentimental.
Affection's charm no longer gilds
The idol of the shrine;
But cold Oblivion seeks to fill
Regret's ambrosial wine.
Though Friendship's offering buried lies
'Neath cold Aversion's snow,
Regard and Faith will ever bloom
Perpetually below.
I see thee whirl in marble halls,
In Pleasure's giddy train;
Remorse is never on that brow,
Nor Sorrow's mark of pain.
Deceit has marked thee for her own;
Inconstancy the same;
And Ruin wildly sheds its gleam
Athwart thy path of shame.
II.--The Homely Pathetic.
The dews are heavy on my brow;
My breath comes hard and low;
Yet, mother, dear, grant one request,
Before your boy must go.
Oh! lift me ere my spirit sinks,
And ere my senses fail:
Place me once more, O mother dear!
Astride the old fence-rail.
The old fence-rail, the old fence-rail!
How oft these youthful legs,
With Alice' and Ben Bolt's, were hung
Across those wooden pegs.
'Twas there the nauseating smoke
Of my first pipe arose:
O mother, dear! these agonies
Are far less keen than those.
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