ASPIRATION.
        SONNET.
 
        THE planted seed consigned to common earth,
            Disdains to moulder with the baser clay;
            But rises up to meet the light of day,
        Spreads all its leaves, and flowers, and tendrils forth;
            And, bathed and ripened in the genial ray,
        Pours out its perfume on the wandering gales,
        Till in that fragrant breath its life exhales.
        So this immortal germ within my breast
            Would strive to pierce the dull, dark clod of sense,
            With aspirations wingéd and intense;
        Would so stretch upward, in its tireless quest,
        To meet the Central Soul, its source, its rest;
        So in the fragrance of the immortal flower,
        High thoughts and noble deeds, its life it would outpour.