UNSPOKEN WORDS.

Unspoken words may thrill the heart,

Their meaning be more deeply felt

Than all the glowing oratory

Poured at the shrine where reason knelt.

The fairest pictures art conceives,

The noblest sentiments of mind,

The loveliest, purest gems of thought

Are those which never are defined.

The hand that paints the rainbow dyes

Ne'er leaves a trace its skill to show —

The art that gilds the sunset skies

And tints the flower, we may not know.

Nor may we know the wizard power

Which o'er our being wields control,

Nor how, when silence seals the lips,

Heart speaks to heart and soul to soul.

We do not know from whence the life

Imbued in crystal drop of rain,

Nor why, when torn and trampled on,

The rose's fragrance will remain.

Nor know we why the tender tone

Will linger when love's dream is fled,

Now why the smile we loved will live,

Although the face it wreathed will be dead.

Some strangely fascinating spell

Steals o'er the heart in ethic's hour;

We know not what, nor how, nor why,

Still must we own we feel its power —

A power that wakens slumbering dreams,

Intangible emotion swells,

That penetrates the soul's deep fount,

And greets the tide that from it wells.

It is not charm of form or face,

Nor is it long contact of years

That wins this mutual soul response,

This spirit sympathy endears.

A theory by time engraved

Fro life, one mad impulse may sweep —

A glance may into being start

Vain hopes that nevermore may sleep.

The quiet touch when hands are clasped

Would seemingly no sense impart,

Yet may it wake a deathless theme

And send it quivering to the heart.

And thus may kindred spirits feel,

Though tone of voice be never heard,

The sweet impassioned eloquence,

The magic of unspoken words.