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35]
“Vain Regrets written on looking over a diary kept while I was under serious impressions” :--
Oh! happy days, gone, never to return
At which fond memory will ever burn,
Oh, Joyous hours, with peace and gladness blest,
When hope and joy dwelt in this careworn breast.
The next poem, “The land of Peace,” breaks off abruptly at the third line, and when she again began to write religious verse, it was from a widely different standpoint.
It may have been about this time that she tried to lead her sisters into the path of poesy.
Coming one day into the nursery, in serious mood, she found the two little girls playing some childish game.
Miss Ward (she was always
Miss Ward, even in the nursery!) rebuked them for their frivolity; bade them turn their thoughts to graver matters, and write poetry.
Louisa refused point-blank, but little Annie, always anxious to please, went dutifully to work, and produced the following lines:--
He feeds the ravens when they call,
And stands them in a pleasant hall.
“
Mitter Ward” (to give him his nursery title) treasured these tokens of pious and literary promise.
He even responded in kind, as is shown by some verses which are endorsed:--
From my dearest Father.
Julia Euphrosyne Ward [sic].
