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Home  »  The Book of the Sonnet  »  Park Benjamin (1809–1864)

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

VII. Domestic Love

Park Benjamin (1809–1864)

WHEN those we love are present to the sight,

When those we love hear fond affection’s words,

The heart is cheerful, as in morning light

The merry song of early-wakened birds:

And, oh! the atmosphere of home—how bright

It floats around us, when we sit together

Under a bower of vine in summer weather,

Or round the hearthstone on a winter’s night!

This is a picture not by Fancy drawn:—

The eve of life contrasted with its dawn;

A gray-haired man,—a girl with sunny eyes;

He seems to speak, and, laughing, she replies:

While father, mother, brothers smile to see

How fair their rosebud blooms beneath the parent tree!