That I will "be near" on thy "bridal day"—
Be with thee before we are ten hours older,
This hasty messenger comes to say,
And bringing its witness,—a pearly folder.
And this, perhaps, as a pointed sign,
By the light upon Hymen's altar burning,
May signify, to a heart like thine,
"What a leaf to-day in thy life is turning!"
May the lines for thy future reading there,
With no sad characters dark or frowning,
In every letter be bright and fair,
To thee and to him thou to-day art crowning.
Accept the token, and let it prove,
As long as thou hence shalt remain its owner,
When thou must be at a far remove
From her, memorial of the donor.
Thou 'lt see engraved on its handle-part,
The form of a pen, with its top of feather—
A type of the wings that heart and heart
May find, when absent, to fly together.
I send thee an opening, thornless rose,
Harmless and soft as the peaceful turtle;
With an emerald sprig from a branch that grows
On the single stalk of my true green myrtle.
I bound them about with a silver thread;
But, ere thy hand is the cord untwining,
The rose will have drooped, or its leaves be shed,
While the myrtle still is freshly shining.
But I will "be near" in thy bridal hour,
This, "Wednesday, evening, at half past seven,"
And give at the nuptials my holier dower,—
A prayer for a smile on them from Heaven.