92
THE TRIUMPHS
Beauty and Diffidence, whose hearts rejoice
In the kind comfort of thy cheering voice,
In this wild wood of life, wert thou not nigh,
Must, like the wandering babes, lie down and die;
But thy sweet accents wake new vital powers,
And make this thorny path a path of flowers:
As oil on ocean's troubled waters spread,
Smooths the rough billow to a level bed,
The soothing rhyme thus soften'd into rest
The painful tumult of Serena's breast.
Now, to herself restor'd, the conscious maid
The lurking fiend's insidious snare survey'd;
Her nerves, with grateful trepidation, own
A slighter pressure from the faithful zone;
And in fond thought she breathes a thankful prayer
For her ætherial guardian's constant care;
Yet with a keen desire her bosom glow'd
To hear from whom the gentle sonnet flow'd;
But kind Sophrosyne, who watch'd unseen,
To shield her votary from the wiles of Spleen,
In the kind comfort of thy cheering voice,
In this wild wood of life, wert thou not nigh,
Must, like the wandering babes, lie down and die;
But thy sweet accents wake new vital powers,
And make this thorny path a path of flowers:
As oil on ocean's troubled waters spread,
Smooths the rough billow to a level bed,
The soothing rhyme thus soften'd into rest
The painful tumult of Serena's breast.
Now, to herself restor'd, the conscious maid
The lurking fiend's insidious snare survey'd;
Her nerves, with grateful trepidation, own
A slighter pressure from the faithful zone;
And in fond thought she breathes a thankful prayer
For her ætherial guardian's constant care;
Yet with a keen desire her bosom glow'd
To hear from whom the gentle sonnet flow'd;
But kind Sophrosyne, who watch'd unseen,
To shield her votary from the wiles of Spleen,
