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On Blending Spirit with Matter
by Judith Sargent Murray

I wish this mode of speech was given o’er, 
That we confounded life and death no more; 
That nor in thought, nor word, we e’er consign’     
To drear oblivion the percipient mind. 
Strange that we mingle thus the breath of God, 
Blending the Soul with its enfolding clod! 
Dark is the view, and comfortless the plan, 
Which levels thus the complex being Man! 
‘Gainst human Nature when we wield the pen; 
Since the Great Spirit is the life of men, 
Our wit and folly are alike in vain, 
While the blest source of being shall remain. 

That this weak tenement is frail I know, 
Subject to error—the lorn child of woe— 
Its texture slight—its frame deriv’d from earth— 
Fated to fall before the conq’ror death: 
That ‘twill to reptiles yield a rich repast, 
Descending to its native dust at last.— 

All this unhesitating I confess, 
Nor can the view my better hopes depress; 
For should we hence characterize the race, 
Or the high lineage of the spirit trace, 
We might as well hie to some lone retreat, 
And thus the philosophic Exile greet.

Thy hut is lowly—tis obscure and small, 
And must assuredly to ruin fall; 
Contending winds will rase it to the ground, 
And on the spot shall rise the verdant mound; 
Ee’n now thy cottage totters in the blast, 
The storm descends—the fatal dies is cast! 

Hence we deduce our sentiments of thee, 
Superior to thy cot, thou canst not be; 
The Tenant cannot soar beyond his cell, 
The clay built walls where he was wont to dwell! 
As is the house, so is the master too, 
Together rising in one point of view! 

‘Tis thus to Reason’s eye their tenets seem, 
Who lightly of the heaven born mind esteem; 
O … of Deity!—I trace thy flight, 
To regions of interminable light, 
Where thy expansive pow’rs new strength shall gain, 
And truth unclouded shall forever reign.

Hope
By Anna Maria Foster Wells

There sits a woman on the brow 
Of yonder rocky height; 
There, gazing o'er the waves below, 
She sits from morn till night. 

She heeds not how the mad waves leap 
Along the rugged shore; 
She looks for one upon the deep, 
She never may see more. 

As morning twilight faintly gleams, 
Her shadowy form I trace; 
Wrapt in the silvery mist, she seems 
The Genius of the place! 

Far other once was Rosalie; 
Her smile was glad, her voice 
Like music o'er a summer sea, 
Said to the heart, —"rejoice!" 

O'er her pure thoughts did sorrow fling 
Perchance a shade, 't would pass, 
Lightly as glides the breath of Spring 
Along the bending grass. 

A sailor's bride 't was hers to be: — 
Wo to the faithless main! 
Nine summers since he went to sea, 
And ne'er returned again. 

But long, where all is wreck'd beside, 
And every joy is chased, 
Long, long will lingering Hope abide 
Amid the dreary waste! 

Nine years —though all had given him o'er, 
Her spirit doth not fail; 
And still she waits along the shore 
The never-coming sail. 

On that high rock, abrupt and bare, 
Ever she sits, as now; 
The dews have damp'd her flowing hair, 
The sun has scorch'd her brow. 

And every far-off sail she sees, 
And every passing cloud, 
Or white-wing'd sea-bird, on the breeze, 
She calls to it aloud. 

The sea-bird answers to her cry; 
The cloud, the sail, float on; 
The hoarse wave mocks her misery, 
Yet is her hope not gone. 

It cannot go; —with that to part, 
So long, so fondly nursed, 
So mingled with her faithful heart; 
That heart itself would burst. 

When falling dews the clover steep, 
And birds are in their nest, 
And flower-buds folded up to sleep, 
And ploughmen gone to rest; 

Down the rude track her feet have worn, — 
There scarce the goat may go, — 
Poor Rosalie, with look forlorn, 
Is seen descending slow. 

But when the gray morn tints the sky, 
And lights that lofty peak, — 
With a strange lustre in her eye, 
A fever in her cheek, 

Again she goes, untired, to sit 
And watch the livelong day; 
Nor till the star of eve is lit, 
E'er turns her steps away. 

Hidden, and deep, and never dry, 
Or flowing, or at rest, 
A living spring of hope doth lie 
In every human breast. 

All else may fail that soothes the heart, 
All, save that fount alone; 
With that and life at once we part, 
For life and hope are one!