The Natal Genius. A Dream

TO .... ....     THE MORNING OF HER BIRTHDAY.     In witching slumbers of the night,     I dreamt I was the airy sprite         That on thy natal moment smiled;     And thought I wafted on my wing     Those flowers which in Elysium spring,         To crown my lovely mortal child.     With olive-branch I bound thy head,     Heart's ease along thy path I shed,         Which was to bloom through all thy years;     Nor yet did I forget to bind     Love's roses, with his myrtle twined,         And dewed by sympathetic tears.     Such was the wild but precious boon     Which Fancy, at her magic noon,         Bade me to Nona's image pay;     And were it thus my fate to be     Thy little guardian deity,         How blest around thy steps I'd play!     Thy life should glide in peace along,     Calm as some lonely shepherd's song         That's heard at distance in the grove;     No cloud should ever dim thy sky,     No thorns along thy pathway lie,         But all be beauty, peace and love.     Indulgent Time should never bring     To thee one blight upon his wing,         So gently o'er thy brow he'd fly;     And death itself should but be felt     Like that of daybeams, when they melt,         Bright to the last, in evening's sky!