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Felicia Dorothea Hemans - The Spells Of Home
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There blend the ties that strengthen
  Our hearts in hours of grief,
The silver links that lengthen
  Joy`s visits when most brief. ~ BERNARD BARTON.


BY the soft green light in the woody glade,
On the banks of moss where thy childhood play`d;
By the household tree thro` which thine eye
First look`d in love to the summer-sky,
By the dewy gleam, by the very breath
Of the primrose tufts in the grass beneath,
Upon thy heart there is laid a spell,
Holy and precious oh! guard it well! 

By the sleepy ripple of the stream,
Which hath lull`d thee into many a dream;
By the shiver of the ivy-leaves
To the wind of morn at thy casement-eaves,
By the bee`s deep murmur in the limes,
By the music of the Sabbath-chimes,
By every sound of thy native shade,
Stronger and dearer the spell is made. 

By the gathering round the winter hearth,
When twilight call`d unto household mirth;
By the fairy tale or the legend old
In that ring of happy faces told;
By the quiet hour when hearts unite
In the parting prayer and the kind "Good-night;"
By the smiling eye and the loving tone,
Over thy life has the spell been thrown. 

And bless that gift! it hath gentle might,
A guardian power and a guiding light.

It hath led the freeman forth to stand
In the mountain-battles of his land;
It hath brought the wanderer o`er the seas
To die on the hills of his own fresh breeze;
And back to the gates of his father`s hall,
It hath led the weeping prodigal. 

Yes! when thy heart in its pride would stray
From the pure first loves of its youth away;
When the sullying breath of the world would come
O`er the flowers it brought from its childhood`s home;
Think thou again of the woody glade,
And the sound by the rustling ivy made,
Think of the tree at thy father`s door,
And the kindly spell shall have power once more!
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