Louisa Stuart Costello

Song (Oh! had I ne'er beheld thee)

Oh! had I ne'er beheld thee
  How calm my life had flown!
As cold, as pure and tranquil
  As some fair vale unknown;

Where never yet the footsteps
   Of wand'ring man has stray'd;
That smiles in lonely beauty
   Unheeded—unsurve'd.

How cheerfully the moments
   In sweet content went by,
When sorrow's cloud pass'd swiftly
   Across a placid sky:

The charm of peace is broken—
 Can nought its dream restore?
That sky, obscured by sadness,
 Shall ne'er be cloudless more.