DEDICATION OF THE SECOND EDITION OF HIS POEMS, TO HIS WIFE

When yet was burning in my fervid veins
The fieriness of youth, with many a tear
Of grief, ’twas mine of all my feelings drear,
To pour in song the passion and the pains;

And now to Thee I dedicate the strains,
My Wife! when Love, from youth’s illusions freer,
In our pure hearts is glowing deep and clear,
And calm serene for me the daylight gains.

Thus lost on raging seas, for aid implores
Of Heaven the unhappy mariner, the mark
Of tempests bearing on him wild and dark;

And on the altars, when are gain’d the shores,
Faithful to the Deity he adores,
He consecrates the relics of his bark.