I.

The skies were its birth-place--the TEAR was the child
Of the dark maiden SORROW, by young JOY beguil'd;
It was born in convulsion; 'twas nurtur'd in woe;
And the world was yet young when it wander'd below.

II.

No angel-bright guardians watch'd over its birth,
Ere yet it was suffer'd to roam upon earth;
No spirits of gladness its soft form caress'd;
SIGHS mourned round its cradle, and hush'd it to rest.

III.

Though JOY might endeavour, with kisses and wiles,
To lure it away to his household of smiles:
From the daylight he lived in it turn'd in affright,
To nestle with SORROW in climates of night.

IV.

When it came upon earth, 'twas to choose a career,
The brightest and best that is left to a TEAR;
To hallow delight, and bestow the relief
Denied by despair to the fulness of grief.

V.

Few repell'd it--some bless'd it--wherever it came;
Whether soft'ning their sorrow, or soothing their shame;
And the joyful themselves, though its name they might fear,
Oft welcom'd the calming approach of the TEAR!

VI.

Years on years have worn onward, as--watch'd from above--
Speeds that meek spirit yet on its labour of love;
Still the exile of Heav'n, it ne'er shall away,
Every heart has a home for it, roam where it may!

For the first few minutes after she had concluded the ode, Hermanric
was hardly conscious that she had ceased; and when at length she looked
up at him, her mute petition for approval had an eloquence which would
have been marred to the Goth at that moment, by the utterance of single
word. A rapture, an inspiration, a new life moved within him. The hour
and the scene completed what the magic of the song had begun. His
expression now glowed with a southern warmth; his words assumed a Roman
fervour. Gradually, as they discoursed, the voice of the girl was less
frequently audible. A change was passing over her spirit; from the
teacher, she was now becoming the pupil.

As she still listened to the Goth, as she felt the birth of new
feelings within her while he spoke, her cheeks glowed, her features
lightened up, her very form seemed to freshen and expand. No intruding
thought or awakening remembrance disturbed her rapt attention. No cold
doubt, no gloomy hesitation, appeared in her companion's words. The
one listened, the other spoke, with the whole heart, the undivided
soul. Wh