In The Firelight.

My dear wife sits beside the fire         With folded hands and dreaming eyes,     Watching the restless flames aspire,         And rapt in thralling memories.     I mark the fitful firelight fling         Its warm caresses on her brow,         And kiss her hands' unmelting snow,     And glisten on her wedding-ring.     The proud free head that crowns so well         The neck superb, whose outlines glide     Into the bosom's perfect swell         Soft-billowed by its peaceful tide,     The cheek's faint flush, the lip's red glow,         The gracious charm her beauty wears,         Fill my fond eyes with tender tears     As in the days of long ago.     Days long ago, when in her eyes         The only heaven I cared for lay,     When from our thoughtless Paradise         All care and toil dwelt far away;     When Hope in wayward fancies throve,         And rioted in secret sweets,         Beguiled by Passion's dear deceits, -     The mysteries of maiden love.     One year had passed since first my sight         Was gladdened by her girlish charms,     When on a rapturous summer night         I clasped her in possessing arms.     And now ten years have rolled away,         And left such blessings as their dower;         I owe her tenfold at this hour     The love that lit our wedding-day.     For now, vague-hovering o'er her form,         My fancy sees, by love refined,     A warmer and a dearer charm         By wedlock's mystic hands entwined, -     A golden coil of wifely cares         That years have forged, the loving joy         That guards the curly-headed boy     Asleep an hour ago upstairs.     A fair young mother, pure as fair,         A matron heart and virgin soul!     The flickering light that crowns her hair         Seems like a saintly aureole.     A tender sense upon me falls         That joy unmerited is mine,         And in this pleasant twilight shine     My perfect bliss myself appals.     Come back! my darling, strayed so far         Into the realm of fantasy, -     Let thy dear face shine like a star         In love-light beaming over me.     My melting soul is jealous, sweet,         Of thy long silence' drear eclipse;         O kiss me back with living lips,     To life, love, lying at thy feet!