This page has been validated.
177
TO AMELIA READ,
ON HER THIRTEENTH BIRTHDAY.
Oh, yet in the happiest season!
Oh, yet in thine hour of spring!
Like a flower in its opening beauty,
Like a bird on its sunniest wing,
Still thou art in the gladness of morning,
In the freshness of earliest May:
No mockery to thee are our wishes—
Many happy returns of the day!
Fair child of the East,* may thy future
Be bright as the land of thy birth,
Where the sky has the clearest of sunlight,
And the richest of roses have birth!
May the storms which sweep there in darkness
Never roll o'er thy gentler way,
Nor cause to lament that we wished thee
Many happy returns of the day!L. E. L.
* The young lady, to whom these lines were addressed, was born in the East Indies.
