Dear Friend! on thine album's page
Yet hath fallen no darkling stain,
Type of thine own guiless age;
May that guiless age remain;
Little know'st thou yet of woe.
Little may'st thou ever know!
And from evils which are rife
in the onward path of life,
Ever may thy bosum be,
Like this album, pure and free;
Yet I mark, though pure the leaves,
each a different tint receives: -
So to thee in after years,
Must arrive, what comes to all,
On this changeful earthly ball,
Hours of joy, and hours of tears -
Hours of hopes, and hours of fears -
Hours that vary as they pass,
Like the hues in prism-glass.
Such is life; - and though 'tis vain
To hope for joy unmixed with pain -
Though we know each coming day
Cannot all be clear and gay -
Dear Friend, may the future be
Largely bright and blest to thee! -
signed "S.R.S. / Baltimore 11th March 1842"
