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 THE LIBRARY 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
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 T:ir 
 
 
 ^
 
 It'bt Bream to Coine^ 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER POEMS 
 
 BY 
 
 asfttlliam Ikvoxi, 
 
 WITH SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, 
 
 CROWN BUILDINGS, t88, FLEET STREET. 
 
 1885. 
 
 {All rights reserved?)
 
 n 
 
 ©otttcnts. 
 
 The Dream to Come 
 A Lonely Life 
 Love and Fame 
 Minima — 
 
 To 
 
 A Dream 
 
 A Portrait 
 
 Song-, '•' O Love, I am weary " 
 
 On hearing- Schubert's Adieu 
 
 The Gift of the Night ... 
 
 To a Friend ... 
 
 To a Brick Wall 
 
 Song-, " In the air there is music " 
 
 To F T , Esq. 
 
 A Fragment, "Come forth," &c. 
 
 A Dream 
 
 Reflections of an Old Beau 
 
 Requiescat in Pace 
 
 9 
 
 43 
 6S 
 
 8i 
 82 
 83 
 84 
 86 
 
 87 
 91 
 93 
 
 95 
 96 
 
 98 
 
 99 
 100 
 
 102 
 
 # 4
 
 6 Contents. 
 
 Minima f continued) — 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Farewell — Adieu — Au Revoir ... ... ... 103 
 
 Thoughts, sug-g-ested by Beethoven's Sonata in A flat 
 
 (Op. 26) ... ... ... ... ... 106 
 
 Autumn ... ... ... ... ... 108 
 
 An Allegory ... ... ... ... ... 109 
 
 Song ... ... ... ... „. no 
 
 The Sunbeam ... ... ... ... m 
 
 To Solitude ... ... ... ... ... 115 
 
 A Vision ... ... ... ... ... 117 
 
 How Poetry is Written ... ... ... 120 
 
 The Birth of Poetry ... ... ... ... 123 
 
 A Prayer ... ... ... ... ... 126 
 
 To.. „., _._„.._. ... ... ... ... 127 
 
 The Home of Love ... ... ... ... 128 
 
 A Parable ... ... ... ... ... 130 
 
 The Future Years ... ... ... ... 131 
 
 Song, "My dreams of thee, Love " ... ... 132 
 
 To a Poet ... ... ... ... ... 133 
 
 Song, " O false, and O fair " ... ... ... 134 
 
 To Music ... ... ... ... ... 135 
 
 A Fragment .. ... ... ... ... 136 
 
 A Funeral at Sea ... ... ... ... i37 
 
 Re-United ... ... ,.. ... ••• ^39
 
 illustrations. 
 
 " Requiescat in Pace" (G. Boyle) ... ... Frontispiece. 
 
 " The edge of the Wood " (G. Boyle) ... page 36 
 
 " A ship becalmed " (E, Aubrey Hunt) ... ,, 62 
 
 " The moonlig"ht tenderly lingered " (G. Boyle) „ 74 
 
 " A Face that I cannot forget " (E. Aubrey Hunt) „ 82 
 
 " Only a lovely face, and golden hair " (Albert Smith) „ 98 
 
 The disabled ship (E. Aubrey Hunt)... ... „ 150
 
 €^fte JBxtKm to €o\nt. 
 
 " Aiid I ivill love thee to the death, 
 A7td out beyond into the dream to come." 
 
 Tennyson.
 
 TO ME the May came too. Three times she knocked 
 Upon my door^ and cried^ " Loy I am May / 
 
 poor pale dr earner ^ come^ and I will kiss you !" 
 
 1 kept my door fast boltedy and T cried ^ 
 
 ** In vain you te?npt 7ne forth ^ O evil guest; 
 
 I have seen through you^ and I have seen through 
 
 The fabric of the worlds and seen too much^ 
 
 And far too deeply ; and all joys are gonCy 
 
 And endless pains are flowing through my heart: 
 
 I have seen through the shells, so hard and stony y 
 
 Of human homes ^ and hearts which arc called human; 
 
 And seen in either y lies, deceit, and sorrow : 
 
 J read in thoughts of men, upon their faces. 
 
 Much that is evil." 
 
 H. Heine, 
 
 (Leland's Tramlation.)
 
 E8e Mvtam to dtomt. 
 
 'TpHE restless shades of Care and Change rule with a 
 -*• monarchy that is immortal. From the butterfly, whose 
 summer dream soon ends, to man himself, ALL must pass 
 through the hungry vortex of care and change into Eternity. 
 The Gods only say that Love is immortal ; and yet, with 
 unchanging eye, they see it wither, like a leaf in the summer 
 sun. — Answer, O ye Gods ! Is rapture immortalised by the 
 regret through which it passes ? Do these restless dreams 
 of unrealised bliss emerge beyond Death, clad in the radiance 
 of immortality ? — Ye are silent I The moonbeams still write 
 their swiftly fading epitaphs on a sleeping world. — Perhaps 
 it is better that these vexed problems should sleep. The 
 moon is hid, and the shadows of despair fold their shrouds 
 closer I Sleep on ; lest waking, thy wearied elements take 
 the rest of annihilation ; lest in their changeful unrest, they 
 storm the pale habitation of Death, and through love of 
 Death, solve these enigmas !
 
 12 The Dream to Come. 
 
 I, 
 
 I WATCHED a glorious rose — from the heart of its ruby bell 
 It sig^hed a faint perfume to the wan, pale asphodel ; 
 It quivered with Love's wild glow, and bowed its gentle head : — 
 I came in the evening- again, and found it crushed and dead. 
 
 I saw a beauteous maiden awaking to Love's fond dreams, 
 As splendid as golden sunset mirror'd on murmuring streams : 
 The dream-god sped with her image, bewildering, beguiling a 
 
 youth, 
 Who, alas ! from the dreaming fiction awoke to the bitter truth. 
 So the mermaidens wove him a shroud, and closed his blue 
 
 eyes fair, 
 And left him, clasping and kissing a lock of his lost love's hair 
 A nightingale told the tale in a tremulous evening lay, 
 And a listening maiden bore the tender message away.
 
 The Dream to Co7?ie. 13 
 
 Too quickly the summer ended, and winter came, frozen and 
 
 hard, — 
 Only a romance was ended, a melody hushed and marred ; 
 Only a short night of grief, and the bright blue eyes were 
 
 closed, 
 And in the calm of the ocean, a wearied heart reposed, 
 And far o'er a shoreless sea, the soul of the lover swept, 
 While from their starry trysting-place, the watching angels 
 
 wept. 
 
 So Death and Love must often meet, and in magic token, 
 Must kiss to hush the wail of the many hearts that are broken.
 
 14 The Dream to Come. 
 
 II. 
 
 O Love ! and O bitter Love ! what dreams art thou rollings back 
 Througfh the vistas long of the past, on awaken'd thoughts' dim 
 
 track ! 
 'Tis long since the song was ended ; the music can never be 
 
 stilled, 
 'Twill float like the perfume of flowers which the sunbeams 
 
 have distilled, 
 *Tis clad in a fadeless youth, and it soars to the sapphire heights, 
 And with brilliance deathless, it cheers the realms of these 
 
 lesser lights ! 
 
 Perchance 'twas only a dream — that fancy so sweet and so 
 
 fond — 
 That love which I took to my heart, and felt its wild pulses 
 
 respond I
 
 The Drea7n to Cotne. 
 
 But could it be only a vision ? language strives vainly to tell 
 Of the quivering- dream-land Fancy, 'which wrought such a 
 
 wondrous spell, 
 As it passed in perfumed garments, whose languid tenderness 
 Was falling in homage about the lines of rare loveliness \ 
 
 As its petals caress the rose, so I felt her arms entwine, 
 
 And all blushing and burning we kissed, and her kisses were 
 * better than wine ! ' 
 
 But the dream has faded to mist, with its fancied love-embrace, 
 
 And the dreaming heart is awake, and it seeks for that spirit- 
 face — 
 
 It must have been fashioned by fancy, for vows so tenderly 
 breathed 
 
 Could never by human heart, and human lips be bequeathed ! 
 
 Ah, then, what a world! but now, the tale seems tediously told ; 
 
 The melody still flows on, but the singer grows weary and old.
 
 i6 The D yearn to Come. 
 
 III. 
 
 And Death in his cave sits, alternately laug-hing- and weeping, 
 While far over Earth and through space the wild sounds are 
 
 sweeping' ! — 
 To sleep in eternal repose, or to wake to eternal regret, 
 Is a problem, the solving of which must puzzle humanity yet ! 
 We glance at the stream of Life, and we shudder at Death's 
 
 cold wave, 
 And we dream of an infinite sea which is flowing beyond the 
 
 grave. 
 Philosophers never have fathomed, have never explained that 
 
 dread, 
 And never an accent comes from the silent shores of the Dead ; 
 But upward forever soars Faith on her pure, on her unsullied 
 
 pinions, 
 And lightens the shadowy gloom which hangs over Death's 
 
 dark dominions I
 
 The Dream to Come. 17 
 
 Death, whom they load with reproaches! O Death, thou 
 
 thrice welcome guest ! 
 
 1 would carve o'er thy pallid portal, * A Place for the Weary 
 
 to Rest,' 
 And give thee the ruddiest roses, and sing a most jubilant song, 
 And pour out the wine of my Life, the faltering notes to prolong 
 
 Amid the shadowy woods, in the clamorous crowded street, 
 A vision of beauty is Death, which the eyes of the weary 
 
 greet ; 
 And brightest dreams of bliss, in radiant guise, unfold 
 All the more ethereal fancies, that Life would for ever withhold ; 
 To their restless, searching fancy, the constantly flowing river 
 Is a Lethe, which seems in its flow to promise oblivion for ever 
 While Death, with a note of glad welcome, forbids them longer 
 
 to weep, 
 And laughingly lures them on, to his soundless and amorous 
 
 sleep. 
 
 To others, he seems a dark shadow, whose petrifying stare 
 Pierces the hearts and the brains of men, breeding a madness 
 
 there : 
 'Tis then from the chilly steel reflected, or poison'd phials, 
 Dimly in misty distance, they see all wreathed in smiles,
 
 1 8 The Dream to Come. 
 
 Beauteous forms, who with loving" glances and gestures are 
 
 calling 
 To feast on ambrosial rapture, the heart and the spirit 
 
 enthralling. 
 
 The lilies lie faded and dead, ere the leaves in the autumn are 
 
 strewn ; 
 And why not the human heart, when the sunshine of life is gone ? 
 ' Undoubtedly mad ! ' — so the coroners say — andjwhere is the 
 
 wrong ? — 
 Hath the singer then no right to make an end of his song ? 
 'Tis a problem I will not discuss ; and one with a wiser head 
 Must tell of the landscapes which meet the eyeless gaze of the 
 
 dead! 
 But of late I have dreamed too much, — so much that indeed 
 
 I seem 
 A restless shade in a void, an atom torn from a dream !
 
 The Dream to Come. 19 
 
 IV. 
 
 Last night, I beheld a horde of phantoms hasting ; and headlong 
 They dragg'd a frail and weakening world to chaos, and flung 
 It over the brink, and it fell, ever swifter and swifter, till 
 
 dashing, 
 It smote on a rock in a wide arid desert, and crashing, 
 It broke in a million fragments ; and straightway its atoms 
 Mis-shapen arose — corpse-like phantoms which glared upon 
 
 phantoms. 
 With horrible glee, in the rays 01 a glimmering death's-head 
 
 lantern. 
 Which broke on the vaulted gloom, — all mad, that they all could 
 
 discern 
 The secrets each snaky heart would hide in its depths, — the 
 
 deceit 
 Which bound, as with double-linked chains, their hands, and 
 
 their tortured feet ; 
 And they railed at the Heavens above them; and oft, with 
 
 most terrible cries.
 
 20 The Dream to Come. 
 
 They fell on each other, till all their hideous dying sighs 
 Were drown'd in an ocean of blood, and the quiverings of brain 
 
 and bone 
 Were lost in the crimson ; and silence was born with a word- 
 less groan ! 
 
 Then I saw mine image, borne on a fragile vessel, which passed 
 Through a cloudy and darkly dim portal, beyond whose mystery 
 
 at last. 
 The strife was hushed in a limitless calm, and the wondering sea 
 Was peaceful as land-bound, summer-lit lake ; and all lucently 
 In the clear blue, loomed a great city, with points of a living 
 
 light— 
 A realm whose bound'ries lay beyond the dark shores of the 
 
 night — 
 With marble domes fretted like lace, a meteor of upper air, 
 Whose heaven worked glow showed aerial lines of all fancies 
 
 rare. 
 Afar, in our wake, the waves and the mermaids are whisper- 
 ing, ' Come ! ' 
 As fleet, to a soft dreamy Isle in love with the moon-beams, we 
 
 roam: 
 Adorn'd with all beauty, it basks like an orient gem, 
 And sparkles with rainbow hues, like a fair diadem ;
 
 The Dream to Come. 21 
 
 The palm-trees are waving their drooping- and fairy-like arms, 
 And odorous flowers are unveiling their wonderful charms ; 
 With melody sweet, the nightingales pass the long summer 
 
 hours. 
 And the notes go trembling and thrilling through air, to our 
 
 fairy-built bowers, 
 Where they fade, like kisses of love, in a measureless ocean of 
 
 bliss, — 
 Can pale mortal dreams e'er reveal so vivid a rapture as this ? 
 Then come to our Isle, whose effulgence is glowing like pearl, 
 Or the dimmering dye inwound in the nautilus curl ; 
 Come ! while the mermaidens yearn, with love - freighted 
 
 glances, to tell 
 The tender thought of a by-gone romance, that enhances their 
 
 spell ; 
 Come! while they sleep in their sapphire-hued, star-lined 
 
 home. 
 Of red coral built, with an amethyst roof, mid the sea-weed and 
 
 foam; 
 The blushes of morning have faultlessly fashioned their limbs, 
 And the deep shade of blue, which never the sleep-god dims, 
 Hath lit in their lustrous eyes a strange fire ; and the silky-gold 
 
 tress. 
 Shining and drooping, strives to cover their loveliness.
 
 22 The Dream to Covie. 
 
 Across the fair blue heavens, in blaze of bridal array, 
 
 The crowded coaches are speeding" : 'tis young- Love's marriagfe 
 
 day: 
 But see ! a strange and hearse-like shape in the foremost place, 
 And an army of spectres alighting, with smiles of an infinite 
 
 grace ! 
 Now, the bridal pair approach ; and the spectres silently rise. 
 For such a wealth of emotion almost brings tears to their eyes 
 Is it well, O Bride of Light, — say, now the farce is over, — 
 Are heavily gilt affections content with so puny a lover ? — 
 O chant this glorious theme, ye saints in seraphic choir, — 
 This image of clay, only lit with the glow of his ghastly desire 
 
 With a sigh, said Satan, " How sad ! such a smiling sample of 
 
 stone, 
 Is evidently ill at ease, when he stands and mutters alone
 
 The Dream to Come. 23 
 
 The words of his marriage vows, in a voice of most lachrymose 
 
 sound ; 
 Methinlis the saint at his side should twine her wild arms around, 
 And touch his tender brow, with the kisses he dearly has bought, 
 To soothe his ruffled feelings, and calm his troubled thought ! " 
 
 The spectre who sits at the organ, is playing the ' Dead March 
 
 in Saul ; ' 
 And the whole of the motley assembly is hid by the folds of a 
 
 pall ! 
 Poison and perjury blight them ; their blessing is turned to a curse ; 
 Out in the sun-light yonder, is waiting the open hearse : 
 "Ha! ha! " quoth the driver Death, "There's a roomy couch 
 
 inside, 
 And a heart that is burnt to dust, for love of yon lying bride ! 
 But its shade shall haunt her days, a snake to feed on her brain, 
 Till she kneels at my bony throne, and prays me to loose her 
 
 chain — 
 The chain that she forged for her soul from a tissue of heartless 
 
 lies, — 
 Whose clank shall be the song of her life, its chorus her sighs, — 
 Clank ! clank ! — she shall hear — it shall eat to the heart of her 
 
 soul. 
 Till the shades of a ceaseless despair their deepest shadows 
 
 shall roll !
 
 24 The Dream to Come. 
 
 Not life ! not death ! but a sickening" sense of a looming dread — 
 While chained in a living world, her soul shall be nerveless and 
 dead ! " 
 
 'Tis morning, with carol of birds, and song of a marriage bell, 
 But, borne on the laughing breeze, comes the sound of my own 
 death-knell !
 
 The Dream to Come. 25 
 
 VI. 
 
 I dreamed of a long-buried bliss — alas, for a very brief while ! 
 Then woke to the mocking reflection of a most deceitful smile 
 In eyes, whose tenderest azure could lure, but only to pain ; 
 For all the heart was enthralled, and bound with cold mammonite 
 chain ! 
 
 Behold, now the glittering- vision is fitfully leading me, where 
 Voluptuous music and love-sick sighs fill the gas-weighted air ; 
 The gladdest and gayest laughter is ringing and echoing 
 
 around — 
 There are throngs of the hollow-hearted, who only live for that 
 
 sound — 
 And palms are swaying, and bending to catch the faint love-sighs, 
 But shiv'ring and shaking, to find they have come to a region of 
 
 lies ! 
 And forget-me-nots laden with dew, and fresh and fair, 
 With their stainless purity honour the dyed, false hair —
 
 26 The Dream to Coine. 
 
 O God ! how eagerly seeks the throng- for one spray of the 
 
 flowers, 
 Forgetting- the legion of fiends who are waiting their after hours ! 
 
 But hush thy maniac jeer ! bow down in gay fashion's assemblage, 
 For cultured Love will but laugh, at the least indication of true 
 rage ! 
 
 And a beauty bends, with an eye for effect, as she tells the old 
 
 story 
 To her newest victim, who thinks that her words are the dawn- 
 
 ings of glory ! 
 
 And is this Love ? this burnt-out breath of a ball-room's glare — 
 A few conventional accents, as empty as air ? 
 Is this bright hallucination a vain conceit, — 
 A god with a golden head, and leaden feet ? 
 
 Am I cynio ? my friends, in undertones say — perhaps — I am mad ! 
 Am I mad ? or all undecidedly hov'ring 'tween mad and sad ? 
 I was mad, when I gave a thought to romance so worldly and 
 
 cold ; 
 I am sad, when I think that her heart's first, highest ambition is 
 
 gold !
 
 The Dream to Come. zi 
 
 I fancy I see her now, at home, in her gilded state ; 
 I fancy I hear a laugh to tell of the mocking of Fate, 
 Foreseeing the coming years, when, tired of her soul-less 
 
 lord, 
 She will ace 'mid her crowding diversions, the spectre so loathed 
 
 and abhorred. 
 Already, I see her shrink from her husband's loveless caress, 
 And weep as her heart, in its woe and its pain, -withers in 
 
 bitterness. 
 Better to live in lonely sorrow — to die a lone death, 
 Than be chained to a bloodless log, whose sordid and passionless 
 
 breath 
 Speaks n3ither of joy nor of hope, but a commonplace round of 
 
 toil, 
 With scarcely a grain more £oul, than belongs to the parent soil ! 
 
 O why did the Fates or the Furies contrive so wretched a plan, — 
 That the Devil and Eve should hatch sin, and sin should 
 immortalize man ! 
 
 The Fates might have treated me worse; and methinks it were 
 
 ill to complain : 
 Only sometimes I stupidly think, that she might have spared me 
 
 some pain ;
 
 28 The Dream to Come. 
 
 For why did she leave me to dream, and to wake in such 
 
 poignant amaze, 
 At the swift and abrupt termination of summer's few glorious 
 
 days? 
 
 I thought, when once I was straying afar, 'neath a tropical sun. 
 That savages were not half-hearted, when once their friendship 
 
 was won — 
 Perhaps 'tis our civilized state, or the horribly changeable weather 
 Endows the average young maid with a set of affections in 
 
 leather ! 
 
 Ah me ! the world may be wise, though it glides so lightly 
 
 along, 
 But it never can fathom the anguish that conceals itself in a song — 
 How can the heart lay bare, the sorrow that burns and sears, 
 Unveiling to long-eared society, life's varied hopes and fears ?
 
 The Dreavt to Come. 29 
 
 VII. 
 
 Now fainter the mazy dance grows, till it fades from my sight, 
 And I see a weird vision which glows with mysterious light; 
 And over the dancing forms, grim Death is waving his wand, 
 Till the lessening lights are all lost in the dimness of shadow 
 
 land; 
 And laughter and music vanish, and borne by the vision I go 
 To a woodland, in whose deep shades the blue forget-me-nots 
 
 grow; 
 And the flowing- brook, as it bends the tall reeds, only murmurs 
 
 of love ; 
 While the birds cease their singing to hear it, and hover in 
 
 silence above. 
 Till saddened they float through the air, and leave me to ponder 
 
 alone ; 
 Till I find the ruby-red lips of my love, and forgetting my 
 
 moan.
 
 30 The Dream to Come. 
 
 I gaze on her strange, wild beauty, as gladsome she welcomes 
 
 me; 
 Till I drink the dreamiest nectar, and reel from the ecstacy ! 
 
 Oh, the words were sweetly spoken, my gold-haired woodland 
 
 fay. 
 For they changed this world to a heaven, at least for one 
 
 summer day !
 
 The Dream to Come. 31 
 
 VIII. 
 
 How solemn and still is the nig-ht ! the moonbeams silver the 
 
 lake; 
 The dead leaves fall on the waters ; the branches gently shake ; 
 'Twere sweet to end this restless dream 'neath the lilied flow, 
 And steal to the silence deep of the stranger world below ; 
 To end the long dream, as a rainbow melts into infinite space — 
 The dream, like a faulty mirror, marring a heavenly face. 
 
 ** I slept," saith the human heart, " when the noon of my life 
 
 was bright ; 
 ** Let me sleep," saith the human heart, " for the sun has gone 
 
 down to the night ! " 
 For the heart that has only sown sorrow, can reap but a harvest 
 
 of tears. 
 And my life has lost the savour of youth, in the round of the 
 
 years ;
 
 32 The Dream to Come, 
 
 And the world can but laug^h and mock at the perished hopes of 
 
 my youth ; 
 And the ears grow dull, that have heard the lies which pass 
 
 current for truth. 
 
 I am sad, with a sadness that never will change into gladness 
 
 again ; 
 For my life is strangely o'ershadowed with ever present pain : 
 And the songs of the birds, and the sunlight breathe of two 
 
 severed lives. 
 And Hope is lost in the gloom, and grief, ever youthful, 
 
 survives ; 
 The present and future are blank; and the end of it all is 
 
 death, 
 Who waits with his spectral eyes, and woos with his somnolent 
 
 breath.
 
 TJie Dream to Come. 33 
 
 IX. 
 
 Eternal repose for a few paltry coins of the realm — 
 
 A sail on the silent seas, with Death at the helm I 
 
 To be found, with eyes that stare with the last cold impress of 
 
 fate, 
 While the doctors woefully wail, that their nostrums have come 
 
 too late ! — 
 Too late ! — I would echo those words, with so despairing a note, 
 That their accents, upborne on my anguish, should far through 
 
 the atmosphere float. 
 And pierce through the silken walls, till the wealth, so dear to 
 
 her sight. 
 Should stifle and poison her soul, like a pestilent vapour or 
 
 blight,— 
 Till tighter and tighter bound by the splendour she loved so 
 
 well, 
 And linked to his sordid spirit, she sank to a golden hell. 
 Where jewels should blaze and stare, with eyes of a searching 
 
 fire, 
 While the ghost of a burnt-out love should mock at the 
 
 heavenly lyre !
 
 34 TJie Dream to Come. 
 
 X. 
 
 The coroner solemnly says, '' In a fit of insanity, 
 
 He passed throug-h an opium dream, and awoke in eternity.'' — 
 
 Oh, wise with an all-seeing- wisdom, methinks that some 
 
 heavenly Grace 
 Hath emptied the casket of wisdom, that should have enriched 
 
 this race ! 
 
 'Tis more than sad — 'tis hopelessly sad — this flawed human 
 
 trust ! 
 And where is the wisdom of love, when love is but ashes and 
 
 dust? 
 
 Now his g-lowing- fancies are quenched and dead; — in his 
 
 poppied sleep, 
 Love can only lead to a grave-yard, as wide as the sea and as 
 
 deep!
 
 The Dream lo Come. n 
 
 And worse than mere loneliness seems that terrible soul desola- 
 tion ; 
 For brooding, it withers and withers, and ends in annihilation — 
 A vast and viewless vacancy, ending in utter blank, 
 Without e'en a ghost of the past to awe, or a shadow lank — 
 An utter rest, a speechless calm, without hope or dread — 
 For in the grasp of Eternity, Thought itfelf is dead ! 
 
 O God ! am I mad — or dead? — a hapless shade returned 
 
 To write love's elegy dim, to love and be once more spurned? 
 
 no ! I feel that I live ; for the fiery steeds of my brain 
 
 Are rearing and plunging within their walls, in exquisite pain ! 
 
 1 live, with a heart that is dead— if such living be really life, 
 When only regret is left to vary the pain of the strife I
 
 36 The Dream to Come. 
 
 XI. 
 
 How oft have I stood in the twilight, to watch where the 
 
 shadows brood, 
 And kiss the slender trees, where they skirt the edg-e of the 
 
 wood; 
 And have gazed on their faint reflections, deep in some reedy 
 
 nook, 
 That added its little sigh to the murmurings of the brook I 
 
 Ah yes ! and I see it again, as if it were yesterday ; 
 
 And I dream as when I was young— as I dreamed ere my hair 
 
 turned grey. 
 Ere Love, with his unrest, had touched the trembling span of 
 
 my years, 
 Had gilded with sunlight my life, which has faded long since 
 
 with my tears. 
 I see the swans on the lake, the reeds, and the lilies that 
 
 shimmer; 
 I watch as the sun goes down, and the landscape grows dimmer 
 
 and dimmer:
 
 The Dream to Come. 37 
 
 The swallows are twittering love to their playmates under the 
 
 leaves, 
 And the sun from the golden west, is tinging- the autumn 
 
 sheaves. 
 
 Ah ! then to live was a pleasure, for all this aching unrest 
 Had planted no seed of discord to grow to a harvest unblest. 
 
 God ! I must not think ; for I feel a dull throbbing pain. 
 Which gnaws with its venomous teeth, and the poison mounts 
 
 to my brain ! 
 But why recall past bliss ? for what can the mem'ry avail ? 
 
 1 saw, last night, the burnt-out star of her destiny pale. 
 
 And she grovelled to earth, as on her slender and shapely neck, 
 Her lord set his foot, and laughed at the shatter'd and dismal 
 
 wreck 
 Of the glory which woke the world's wonder — her beauty, her 
 
 soul, and her wit — 
 Ere the Devil entered her heart, and gave them all notice to 
 
 quit!
 
 The Dream to Come. 
 
 XII. 
 
 The spectres of destiny drag me, lower and lower yet, 
 To the home of the shades of emotions that wake to an endless 
 regret ! 
 
 I enter a frowning gulf ; and I pass through an adamant gate, 
 
 Ceaselessly guarded by triple ban, and the curses of Fate. 
 
 And the icy air, which is wafted frcm unknown depths of dread. 
 
 Is heavily burden'd with sighs from hopes that have joined the 
 dead ; 
 
 And abysmal cataracts break, with a mist of steel-grey vapours. 
 
 And carded to foam half hide, half reveal, the ghastliest splen- 
 dours : 
 
 And woven from inky webs of the night, the roof afar 
 
 A blackening mantle casts, unbroken by even a star. 
 
 'Tis the world of the shades ; and vainly they pray : their in- 
 voking breath 
 
 Returns in the chilling signs that are wrung from Despair an.i 
 Deaih:
 
 The Dream (o Come. 
 
 39 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Now Love passes by me, invested with beauty beyond human 
 
 thought ; 
 And all other passions pine, and pale, and vanish to nought ; 
 While forms of a wondrous, strange, apd tremulous loveliness 
 Appear in the tranquil radiance, bright in aerial dress, 
 With streaming locks of gold, whose burnished and shining 
 
 strands 
 Float like a gossamer glory, worked by the fairies' hands ; 
 And rich and red are the eager lips, whose unquenchable fire 
 Was lighted with smiles long past, of a changeless and deathless 
 
 desire ; 
 And blushing and unveiled limbs, of slumb'rous and pearly hues. 
 Are fair as the sun-kissed peach that the amorous sun-god woos ; 
 And their eyes have a liquid lustre, like eyes of the gentle gazelle 
 And are tender as untold love, and sad as a long farewell ! 
 
 I faint in a languor of passion, a splendour of music and light, 
 A mystVy of love and of pain, as wild as a bridal night !
 
 40 
 
 The Dream to Come. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 The sun groes down in his glory ; the mantle of sorrow is rolled, 
 As he sinks in the western cloudland, which g-Iows into purple 
 
 and gold. 
 The moon of love breaks forth ; and oh, she is wan and pale ; 
 But far o'er the infinite sea shines Hope, with approaching- sail : 
 And over that tideless deep, appeareth a golden portal, 
 Disclosing- Elysian fields, and a youth that is changeless, im- 
 mortal ; 
 And the severing mists of sorrow reveal a kingdom above. — 
 Life fades: but lo ! in a triumph appears the dav/ning of love, 
 The dawn that is fadeless — for Life that marred all the past is 
 
 now dead ; 
 The finite is folded to sleep, the infinite wakes in its stead : 
 With music, and roses of love, my senses fall gently to slumber ; 
 The kisses of death are cold, but Love # * * »
 
 ^ %oml^ %iit. 
 
 " Sed redeo ad amor em deliciasqiie nostras." 
 
 Cicero.
 
 ^ Honelg %i(t. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 I. 
 
 TT^AINT, opaline, the mists of Autumn dawn 
 •^ Break o'er a hamlet, in a county fair, 
 With chalky cliffs, and crag-s, and grassy lawn, 
 Nestling- above the sea, whose fragrant air 
 Soothes as some old magician's spell obscure, 
 That time hath lost the record of. Northward 
 A pastoral landscape spreads its charms to allure 
 The toilers from the City's labours hard ; 
 While, near at hand, the red roofs are disposing 
 Their colour 'gainst the grey stone battlement, 
 Where moss and lichens softly are reposing 
 Amid the scars of time in sweet content.
 
 46 A Lofiely Life. 
 
 II. 
 
 Some years ag-o, an incident (they speak 
 
 Still of it, awestruck, whispering-,) convulsed 
 
 This hamlet, as if Fate had meant to wreak 
 
 Its vengeance, having been so long repulsed. 
 
 One summer, from a clime beyond the sea, 
 
 There came a stranger ; and he seemed to be 
 
 O'er burdened with some heavy, secret sorrow. 
 
 Which sapped his life, and forced his flesh to borrow 
 
 The shadowiest semblance of humanity. 
 
 By day and night they watched him, solitary. 
 
 Gazing in mute appeal o'er rocks and sea. 
 
 As seeking company in clouds or air ; 
 
 The while they wondered what he pictured there — 
 
 For, to their minds, it seemed insanity 
 
 To seek from things insensate, sympathy. 
 
 III. 
 
 As time flew by, and week succeeded week. 
 Came a new colour to his faded cheek : 
 His loneliness v/as past ; he found a friend. 
 Upon whose every step he would attend, — 
 The daughter of an artist, whose abode 
 In Moorish fancy, Orient beauty glowed,
 
 A Lonely Life. 47 
 
 And, quaintly carven as a sea-worn stone, 
 Reared fairy turrets in a woodland lone. 
 And she had beauty, as in fables told, 
 Of large blue eyes, and hair of bronzed gold. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The summer passed, and autumn leaves glowed red ; 
 The happy morning dawned ; and they were wed. 
 A week had scarce elapsed, when dark mid-night 
 Beheld a scene of terrible affright. — 
 Murdered asleep ! — the current whispers said — 
 Two cruel stabs, that dyed the nuptial bed ! 
 And he, as if in death-trance, standing by, 
 Was seized and hand-cuffed, unresistingly. 
 
 V. 
 
 The morning came, and all the town was thrilled ; 
 
 E'en morbid curiosity was filled ! 
 
 Yet wilder was the second morn's commotion ; 
 
 Men hurried by, the town was all in motion, 
 
 And whispering groups heard with a nameless dread. 
 
 Some unknown hand had borne away the dead ;
 
 48 A Lo7iely Life. 
 
 The prisoner had flown, by dark connivance 
 Of gaolers bribed, or other vile contrivance 1 
 
 VI. 
 
 But notwithstanding-, public feeling went 
 In pity to the youth, deemed innocent ; 
 And laid the crime upon some rival lover. 
 And, as all tragedies are tided over, 
 This, like the dying peals of summer thunder, 
 Soon was forgotten, as a nine days* wonder.
 
 ¥earnmss» 
 
 'T^HERE ARE some sorrows, only known to night, 
 
 -*" Who kindly shrouds in ^loom their noiseless flig-ht : 
 And misery is so mixed with earthly strife, 
 That sorrow seems the hand that moulds our life. 
 
 II. 
 
 When Memory recalls my childhood's years, 
 She has no word of what the world calls youth ; 
 That mystery of dawning- hopes and fears 
 Was held from me by Fates who feel no ruth. 
 The sadness of my Father's life was mine, 
 Who dying, almost with his latest breath. 
 Bequeathed to me a life, whose faint outline 
 Was filled by strangers' hands. No mother's eye 
 O'erlooked my helpless years. A far-oflf land 
 Nursed my young thoughts ; and oft, in misery, 
 I cooled their ardour by its wave-beat strand.
 
 30 A Lonely Life. 
 
 III. 
 
 But ofteniimes my wandering- thoughts would roam 
 To a small hamlet, and a grass-grown grave 
 In England, o'er the seas, my distant home. 
 Summer was ripening- when I crossed the wave ; 
 Birds blithely sang, and all the world was gay ; 
 Yet my heart ached with intricate emotion ; 
 For mid the gladness of each sunny day, 
 My life still lacked the magic of devotion. 
 
 IV. 
 
 O Father, Mother ! my sad life could never 
 Or know, or feel your g-entle, g-uardian care ; 
 Yet oft, to where ye dwell in joy for ever, 
 My heart was raised to seek your blessing there I 
 
 V. 
 
 O ye, whose life has passed through happier years, 
 Whose every wish finds echo in loved heart.
 
 A Lonely Life. 51 
 
 Whose brighter hopes have banished half your fears, 
 Think of my life, unblest, unloved, apart 1 
 How often, when in sunset's peaceful hour, 
 My gaze turns homeward to the distant west. 
 Sunlike, I wish I had the magic power, 
 To softly sink to sleep, and be at rest ! 
 
 VI. 
 
 O Life ! at best thou art a troubled story. 
 Whose years of gloom hide every trace of glory 1 
 O youthful dreams ! how swift your radiance fled, 
 While manhood's years brought sorrow in your stead '. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Cease, thankless heart I though now so sorely riven. 
 Yet Love once changed thy sordid earth to heaven 1
 
 ILife's ©roton* 
 
 I. 
 
 /'^ LOST LOVE, once more, by the summer sea, 
 
 ^-^ Ecstatic as of old 1 gaze on thee ! 
 We stood, Love, by the sanJs the ocean laves, 
 In star-lit nights, when slept the gentle waves ; 
 And there we breathed our love, — 'twas our love then, 
 Which words could never tell — beyond all ken ! 
 And from the western gates came zephyrs fair 
 To murmur legends to thy golden hair. 
 And life, made free from sorrow, fell asleep ; 
 We thought there were no wrecks on love's calm deep ! 
 
 II. 
 
 O summer days, and nights, and star-kissed sea, 
 Immortally enshrined in memory. 
 Amid your splendours, hearts were forced to learn 
 Love's fondest fancies, and with fervour yearn I
 
 A Lonely Life. 53 
 
 III. 
 
 And so the morning- dawned, on which I passed 
 The bounds of joy ; my love was mine, at last ! 
 And Love, in blissful slumber knew no hours ; 
 A week was as a day to love like ours ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 O summer sea, can ever hearts forget 
 
 The raptures felt when first they trembling met ? 
 
 But now thy sigh is a long requiem, — 
 
 Love weeping, whispering, o'er the 'priceless gem, 
 
 The splendour of Life's Crown, till envious Death 
 
 Quenched its bright lustre with his chilling breath I
 
 Eftt atnvu. 
 
 I. 
 
 QHUDDERING, I draw the veil; how can I tell 
 ^^ The ghastly manner of Love's swift farewell ? 
 
 God I in agony my senses reel — 
 Again that sight ! — I see — I cannot feel, 
 For all my heart is dead — this is not life — 
 This bliss and horror in chaotic strife ! 
 
 II. 
 
 One week of love ; and life must pay the debt ! 
 One week of life ; and all the rest regret ! — 
 
 1 left thee, warm with love, and fancies bright ; 
 When next I gazed upon thee, all the light 
 Had faded from thine eyes, and darkly red 
 
 Thy heart's warm stream had dyed our nuptial bed
 
 A Lonely Ltfe. 55 
 
 III. 
 
 The curse of gods and fiends be on his head 
 
 Who did this deed ! may everlasting- dread 
 
 Haunt every hour, till in a living- tomb, 
 
 Blood-stained remorse shall seal his awful doom ! 
 
 Blood ! thy dear blood ! I fain would ravag-e Hell 
 
 Of its worst pang-, the punishment to swell 
 
 Of thy detested murderer, until he 
 
 Should call aloud for newer ag-ony 
 
 To mask the deadlier anguish of the old : 
 
 While every torture vengeful Hell could hold 
 
 Should mock at his dismay ; his carcase keep 
 
 Withiii its slimiest, foulest, angriest deep, 
 
 Raising its members, singly, for the feast 
 
 Of ghouls, whose hate should feasting be increased, 
 
 Until they died, in second death, to learn 
 
 A new Hell's torments ; then they should return, 
 
 With darkest demons, and should seethe his brain. 
 
 Till, from its fumes, the furies shrank in pain : 
 
 Then, should they rend his nerve, and flesh and bone. 
 
 Till every atom separate life should own.
 
 56 A Lonely Life. 
 
 That each might suffer ! and his noxious heart 
 The leanest ghosts of Hell should tear apart, 
 And gnaw and swallow, vomit it in fire, 
 And burn each morsel with accurst desire ; 
 Till Hell, with all its vilest spirits evil. 
 Should shrink with loathing from so foul a devil ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 O memory, stay ! my heart is all on fire 
 With hate insatiate, that such thoughts inspire ! 
 Ye powers of good, who in my childhood's day 
 Fashioned my thoughts, resume your gentle sway ; 
 Revisit with your calm this mind o'erwrought. 
 Or else, in pity, freeze my torrent thought !
 
 Eijt ISarting* 
 
 (^EEING my love, a stupor of despair 
 
 Closed on my brain, and crushed all feeling there. 
 Life 1 light ! — a frozen sea, a hollow void. 
 With Death to mock at all we had enjoyed ! — 
 
 II. 
 
 The night air sighed ; then came an angry throng, 
 
 Who glared at me — as though I wrought the wrong ! — 
 
 And bound my senseless limbs, — for sense was dead, 
 
 Save to my love on her ensanguined bed. — 
 
 Oh no ! it was a litter, strewn with flowers, 
 
 Roses and lilies, wreathed in fairy bowers ! 
 
 I looked to see thy sister angels come 
 
 To bear thee thence to Love's eternal home I 
 
 III. 
 
 The stupor passed ; but Reason had endured 
 Only to writhe in Memory's chains secured ; 
 For, with a vivid light, through mists of sadness, 
 There came a thought which lashed me into madness, — 
 
 H
 
 A Lonely Life. 
 
 To think that any strang-er should behold 
 
 The pure pale tints that Death would soon unfold ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 They say men sell their souls for gold, — a creed 
 
 Accurst, yet true. I found my gaolers' greed 
 
 The only ray of hope that still was left 
 
 To me, of every human tie bereft. 
 
 With anxious love, my plans v/ere made. The night 
 
 Should shroud with kindly gloom our hurried flight ; 
 
 Our meeting-place a sandy stretch of shore, 
 
 Where smuggling-craft would wait to bear us o'er 
 
 The silent sea, to a far-distant land — 
 
 My love, e'en dead, should 'scape the impious hand !- 
 
 For my own life, I cared not ; it had died ; 
 
 Its doom was her last breath : and yet, I cried 
 
 To see her once again, and end my days 
 
 Beyond the reach of man's remorseless gaze ! 
 
 V. 
 
 O love ! I had one joy : the angels now 
 
 Could with their garlands bind thy snowy brow. 
 
 At rest ! for Death had kissed thee, O my love ;
 
 A Lojiely Life. 59 
 
 And freed thy g-irlish fancy, which migfht rove 
 Amid Eiysian fields, as fair as dreams. 
 When Fancy glows with scintillating- gleams. 
 But, Love, I could not leave thee lying there, 
 So, in thy dreamless sleep, with loving care, 
 I bore thee thence, that darksome summer night, 
 When faint the crescent moon, in her wan light. 
 Hung quivering like some blessed saintly emblem, 
 Love's first, and now Love's farewell diadem. 
 
 VI. 
 
 Love, thou wert too fair for earthly grave ; 
 
 1 gave thee sleeping to the enamoured wave, 
 Which tossed thy hair to tangles of delight. 
 And like a dream, thou fadedst from my sig'ht. 
 Then all the links of life were burst, and only 
 Dead love o'er the loved dead kept vigil lonely I
 
 I. 
 
 1~) EMEM BRANCH faded ; and I know not where, 
 
 ■^ ^ I woke, the victim of life-long despair, 
 
 In a lone islet of unearthly guise, — 
 
 A Hell decked out with flowers of Paradise. 
 
 11. 
 
 Through seas of tears, I watch the years go by, 
 I see the snakes, the trees, the lizards die ! 
 Still I exist ; tor even fell Disease 
 Passes me l»y, and mocking, from me flees.
 
 A Lonely Life. 61 
 
 The silent air hang-s voiceless in its dread. 
 Or shrieks, like vultures o'er the unburied dead ; 
 The rotting-, leafless trees g^rim shadows fling- ; 
 The sickening- birds forg-et their power to sing- : 
 The sun hath burnt itself to death ; the moon. 
 With blood-red streaks, lig^hts up the lone lag-oon. 
 I oft have heard, that men who die in madness, 
 Before their glazings eyes are quenched in sadness. 
 Hear strang-est sounds, see strangest fevered fancies, 
 
 Whose wild delirious bliss their dying joy enhances; 
 
 Methinks the frenzied goddess, to her lair, 
 Has shuddering fled from me, in chill despair ; 
 Death, frightened, shrinks in all his sable state, 
 And trembling leaves me to my lingering fate !
 
 EPILOGUE. 
 
 /^NE NIGHT, a ship becalmed lay on the sea ; 
 
 ^^ The sailors all averred that, luridly, 
 
 A lig-ht shot up, as of a burnings pile, 
 
 On a low-lying", palm-encircled isle. 
 
 And, thinking- it a signal of distress, 
 
 At morn they landed. Mid the loneliness, 
 
 They found charred embers of a wooden dwelling, 
 
 A scorched record, in its ruin telling- 
 
 The end of a lone life. They found apart, 
 
 'Mid bony ash, an unconsumed heart ! 
 
 II. 
 
 This relic, they bore reverently away, 
 
 Till, one night, from the deck — the sailors say —
 
 '•h^^i -^^-yr^ 

 
 A Lonely Life. 63 
 
 They saw a wondrous sig^ht. They slowly neared 
 Old England, when in mystic sheen, appeared 
 A phantom fair, with crown of golden hair, 
 With ruby lips, with wondering blue eyes rare, 
 That seemed to search, until they found the chest 
 Where lay the heart, which, clasping to its breast. 
 It slowly passed with joyous tears away, 
 In rainbow glory, 'mid the mists and spray. 
 
 III. 
 
 Perchance some syren of the sapphire deep 
 Hath made a heaven beside the sea-god's throne, 
 'Mid corals and anemonies asleep, 
 For hearts which could not live or die alone !
 
 l£oi3t awti dFamt* 
 
 " Tutti It miei pensier parlan d Amove. " 
 
 '• Daxte.
 
 a 
 
 I. 
 
 T SAT by my casement alone, and gazed on the weird 
 
 moonlig-ht ; 
 And a sound of music came, borne on the star-lit wings of the 
 
 nig-ht. 
 Which carried my spirit away, as on glittering silver beams, 
 Till life was a formless fancy, lost in a world of dreams. 
 
 Beyond Time's hoary walls, which are builded of hopes and 
 
 fears, 
 Was a realm of brightness undimmed by the restless march of 
 
 the years ; 
 And within its sapphire expanse, which was veiled in a dreamy 
 
 haze, 
 The dwellers had lost all desire for the past and its buried 
 
 days ; 
 For human life, in their sight, seem.ed bound as in fetters of 
 
 gold. 
 And Earth with its glories grew dim, and vapid as tale twice 
 
 told.
 
 68 Love and Fame. 
 
 II. 
 
 But the vision Wv.o all incoherent ; my eyes were dazed by the 
 
 glare ; 
 And my soul was chilled by the breath of sin's pestiferous air ; 
 Until in my bold aspiration, I turned to a lonely light, 
 Which, far in the distance, shone with lustre fadelessly bright : 
 And through the ambient air, were armies of shadows fleeting, 
 And joining with others, in strange and notable spectral 
 
 meeting ; 
 And some were old warriors, scarred : and others still youthful 
 
 seemed. 
 Then swift, through the air, I was borne to where that radiance 
 
 beamed ; 
 When a shade of a mien majestic thus spake : — " Dost thou ask 
 
 for Fame ? — 
 Thou fain wouldst bask in its light ; but canst thou endure in 
 
 its flame ? —
 
 Love and Fame. 69 
 
 Ah ! many a gallant soul has perished before its breath ! — 
 Then tireless must be thy young heart, and brave to the bitter 
 
 death : 
 The winner has gflory indeed, but purchased at what a cost ! 
 For every tie that would bind him to earth must be broken and 
 
 lost ; 
 And sorrow must be his familiar friend, and his heart must be 
 
 tried : — 
 Ah I many have sickened with sorrow ; and some in their 
 
 sadness have died ! 
 And Love may woo thee with syren notes — from her lures thou 
 
 must flee, 
 And from Mammon with lustful locks and g-olden witcnery. 
 
 think, if thou wilt, that baseless and idle may be my words ; 
 But Love hath enthralled my heart, and bound it with triple 
 
 cords : 
 With Love, I have spent long- days, and softly the summer 
 
 nights 
 Have fettered my glowing Fancy, and bound it in dreamy 
 
 delights ; 
 
 1 have felt Love's exstacies wild, as my Love lay clasped to my 
 
 heart. 
 Till our eyes grew dim, and we learned all the lore that Love 
 could impart : —
 
 70 Love and Fame. 
 
 Love ! none knows what is love, in these dark and degenerate 
 
 times, — 
 Except among- Southern hearts, amid sun-steeped Southern 
 
 climes ; 
 Where dewy-deep eyes, and ruby- red lips, with an eloquence 
 
 mute, 
 Tell of wilder longings than ever impassioned the trembling 
 
 lute. 
 By nymphs of the stream I was kissed into sleep, 'mid the lotus 
 
 flowers ; 
 And the dawn of each day unfurled a glory of golden hours : 
 From the turquoise balcony, where the nymphs and the 
 
 goddesses rest 
 On airy couches, whose colour is wrought from the rainbow's 
 
 crest, 
 My love, with a thrilling greeting*, would come through th::: 
 
 mystic glow, 
 When the tenderly shadowed gloaming was sad, and the winds 
 
 were low, * 
 
 By odorous zephyrs borne, on clouds of a ruby fire. 
 With music that sighed through her vvaving hair in throbs of 
 
 desire. 
 And I fathomed the mystery of love, in the light of her maiden 
 
 eyes,
 
 Love a?2d Fame. 
 
 Which caug-ht their ligfht from the stars, and their colour from 
 
 summer skies : 
 We were hid from the peering moon-beams, in the loneliest 
 
 sylvan glade, 
 And lost 'mid iris and violet, growing in kindliest shade ; 
 And our days all died, like the leaves of the rose in the breath 
 
 of Time, 
 And our nights were rich with perfume, as of jessamine flowers 
 
 in their prime. 
 
 "But the brief delirium passed ; and Love became as a shade, 
 Or the mem'ry of music, that once by the hands of a loved one 
 
 was played : 
 And the vows so boldly uttered vanished away into air ; 
 But their elements lasted, and took the shape of a life-long 
 
 despair ! 
 
 " So the lay I had given to Love, I attuned to nobler things ; 
 For vainly my fancy had striven to soar, on its plumeless wings
 
 72 Love and Fame. 
 
 Yet sometimes regrets would come, for the life that is human 
 
 must be 
 A war 'tween the doom of its clay, and the soul's immortality ! 
 
 " E'en now old longings will haunt me, and wrap me in misty 
 maze, 
 
 Till my life seems to glide once again to the dreams of those by- 
 gone days."
 
 Love and Fame 73 
 
 III. 
 
 He ceased : and e'en in my vision, I knew that I needs must 
 
 move 
 On the highway to Fame, or stray on the dangerous by-paths of 
 Love \ 
 
 Then I heard a melody sweet, beyond all the powers of speech, 
 And all that the farthest flights of Fancy ever could reach, — 
 Such music as seraphs make, all earthly cares above, 
 Whose majestic concords vibrating tell of a deathless love ! 
 The leafless trees had vanished, and summer had come again ; 
 And my heart had escaped from its torture of restless and 
 aching pain :
 
 74 Love and Fame. 
 
 The willows kissed the love-lorn lilies that wept on the river ; 
 The nightingales took up the song-, in notes that will live for 
 
 ever ; 
 And the moonlight tenderly lingered, spending its life to grace 
 The angel beauty that shone on a strangely idyllic face : 
 And the winds of the night low whispered their old and 
 
 unwearying lay, 
 Till the clouds, in their bridal sheen, unbarred the gates of the 
 
 day: 
 Then, all the Fates of my destiny smiled, unwinding a silken 
 
 skein ; 
 But a shadow darkened the sky, and the chords were all snapt 
 
 in twain !
 
 Love and Fame. 75 
 
 IV. 
 
 Thoug"h Time has stolen those hours, their mem'ry I fain would 
 
 nurse 
 Away in some emerald grot, where the Earth and its noisy 
 
 curse 
 Ani.l its passions are lost in a calm, and the wear of its eager 
 
 thoug-ht 
 Vexeth no more the soul with problems that come to nought: 
 There, I would linger in dreams of a limitless exstacy, 
 And merge all this mortal night in the bliss of Eternity !
 
 76 Love and Fame. 
 
 V. 
 
 O my love ! the angels were whispering ho;)e that nigirt — 
 Will ever these sunless skies be changed by a dawning as 
 
 bright ?— 
 O mists of the earth so dense, which hide my lost love from me, 
 And in maddening mockery, echo the sounds of wild revelry I 
 Let night, and moon-light, and love, in fathomless glory bt-ar 
 My soul from this wearisome pain, and the dread of a future of 
 
 care ! 
 
 ^ % % %■ » *
 
 Love and Fame. 77 
 
 VI. 
 
 Now Fame, to whose dimless light, my earliest thoughts were 
 
 stealing, 
 Perchance, with its unrest, will drown the sigh of all other 
 
 feeling — 
 But still in the mundane whirl, Fame's deathless and glorious 
 
 crown 
 To me seems woven from tresses which rippled in splendour 
 
 down, 
 And mantled and veiled a fair face, which still is shining afar 
 Till it seems to my errant fancy, my guiding-, my Polar star! 
 Its glamour is leading rce on, in the fairy-land bright to roam, — 
 My love, with an outstretched arm. stands forth and beckons 
 
 me home I
 
 mitttttm.
 
 MINIMA. 
 
 Eo - 
 
 A ND WOULDST thou bear a cross for me ?— 
 -^ ^ I send a golden cross to thee, 
 An emblem, which may often lead 
 Thy thoughts, in hour of sorest need, 
 Beyond Time's shore, and worldly greed. 
 Thou art above all trivial things ! 
 All Earthly Hope, with all it brings, 
 Is not for thee ; who, at the portal, 
 Art waiting sight of the Immortal I 
 Yet once I dreamed thou hadst a share 
 In all this restless round of care ; 
 And so I thought to send this cross, 
 Which, in thy hour of pain or loss, 
 Should whisper words, from Heaven sent down, — 
 *' Who bears the Cross shall wear the Crown!"
 
 82 Minima. 
 
 A DREAM that I must not remember, — 
 A face that I cannot forget, — 
 A voiceless romance, ah, so tender, 
 Which leaves me to endless regret ! 
 
 A song that came with the sunset, 
 That never could float into words, — 
 A rapture, untouched with regret, 
 Vibrating in tenderest chords ! 
 
 But oh ! let me hope that again, 
 The now dreaming music will wake. 
 And, bright from its slumber of pain. 
 The long weary silence will break ; 
 
 And the unrest be stilled evermore. 
 
 Where sorrow no longer can weep ! — 
 
 So soon as we land on the infinite shore. 
 
 Our songs will find words, and our sadness find sleep !
 
 Minima. 83 
 
 ^ portrait 
 
 /"^ OLD and amber ming-led, when the sunset died ; 
 ^-^ Balmy evening- breezes fanned thy g-olden tress, 
 Which, in beauteous ripples, floated far and wide, 
 Softly kissed by sunset into tenderness ! 
 
 Drowsy perfum'd vi'lets, breathed a faint " g-ood-nig-ht," 
 And the g-entle meaning of their fragrant sighs 
 Reached pale Myosotis, who with footstep light 
 ]-eft a love- wish sleeping in thy maiden eyes! 
 
 Echo heard strange music ; and in her unrest 
 Sought the voice that uttered such rare melody, 
 Searched through all the woodland, in the futile quest. 
 Till she found thee whispering words of love to me.
 
 84 Minima, 
 
 ^<»nQ. 
 
 /~^ LOVE, I am weary, so weary ; 
 ^-^ For ever the way is so dreary ! 
 To think that Love came but to tell 
 A long and a final farewell ! 
 
 Sorrowing-, sorrowful. 
 
 Tell me, I pray, 
 
 Was it like Love 
 
 To pass in a day ? 
 
 O Love, your vows you can swiftly forget ; 
 But yours be all joy, and mine all regret ! 
 Go ! bury the azure Forget-me-not, 
 The past and its joys must all be forgot I 
 
 Bitterly bitter, 
 
 Regretful, regretting, 
 
 Love of a day, 
 
 Forgetful, forgetting I
 
 Minima. 85 
 
 I had a brief vision of bliss, 
 
 Ah, fleeter than sunbeam's kiss ! 
 
 For soon, you chang-ed and left me alone, 
 
 You loved and you changed, and you left me to moan ! 
 
 Wearied and weary, 
 
 Saddened and sad, 
 
 Dreary and hopeless, 
 
 Maddened and mad !
 
 86 Minima. 
 
 ©n Hearing ^c|)uli)trt's ^Irieu* 
 
 ZITHERS breathed their vows abroad; but we never 
 
 whispered ours ; 
 We prayed their silence rrug-ht awake in other, happier hours. 
 O golden, fondest love-words — why so long- unsaid ? 
 O eyes so long left weeping ! — O hearts so long unwed ! 
 
 'Twas a summer evening ; 'mid its sunset beams, 
 Came that fairest maiden, robed in twilight dreams ; 
 Seeing looks so loving, died my fears away ; 
 Lo, the clouds were breaking ; dawned a glorious day ! 
 
 But witli morn, a maiden's heart lay stilled to rest, 
 'Neath a mossy bank, with purple heartsease dress'd. 
 Angels weep and falter love-vows long unsaid; 
 Dies the song in silence ; its notes to heaven have fied I
 
 Minima. 87 
 
 I. 
 
 A GAIN I see thy shrouded form, 
 O Spirit of the night, 
 Again in misty pageantry, 
 Greeting my longing sight ! 
 
 II. 
 
 And now in splendid majesty, 
 Undimmed by death or pain, — 
 
 All earthly anguish past and gone, — 
 I meet my Love again : 
 
 III. 
 
 For Faith hath triumphed over grief ; 
 
 And brightly radiant now, 
 Lo, I behold the star of Hope 
 
 Which gleams upon her brow 
 
 IV. 
 Her lips are breathing^music rare, 
 
 Intense as seraph's lay, 
 Until from bliss to higher bliss, 
 
 It bears my soul away.
 
 88 Minima. 
 
 V. 
 Her eyes are speaking- endless love ; 
 
 And yet their wondrous beam 
 Hath not one taint of earth in it — 
 ' The essence of a dream, 
 
 VI. 
 Whose rapture maketh no appeal, 
 
 Save to the soul and mind, 
 Which all the baser passions now. 
 
 Are powerless to bind. 
 
 VII. 
 And now we sail with magic speed — 
 
 How calm the sea is now ! 
 Our Argosy has golden sails, 
 
 And carven pearl for prow ; 
 
 VIII. 
 'Tis freighted with the tenderest sighs. 
 
 Gleaned from the past love-lore, 
 And laugh of love, with gladsome ring, 
 
 Floats to the sun-lit shore 
 
 IX. 
 Of astral ruby Isle, whereon 
 The splendid lilies flower,
 
 Minima. 89 
 
 And lustrous star-eyed maidens count 
 Each peaceful passing hour : 
 
 X. 
 
 And there the lotus never dies, — 
 
 In ever new perfume, 
 It charms the sapphire night away. 
 
 And lives in fadeless bloom ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 And there the song is never mute, 
 
 And dreamy breezes blow, 
 Which lull to changeless sleep, the years 
 
 Of the sad long-ago : 
 
 XII. 
 And there a tender Lethean stream 
 
 Awaits the aching brain, 
 And binds with dewy diadem, 
 
 To charm away all pain : — 
 
 XIII. 
 
 An Isle of love-wrought silence, 
 
 Asleep by crystal sea, — 
 Lost 'mid its strange enchantments, 
 
 O Love, I worship Thee ! —
 
 90 Minima. 
 
 xrv. 
 
 Alas ! the day has come again. 
 To find my heart still weary ; 
 
 The vanished dreamland leaves me nought 
 But landscapes darkly dreary !
 
 Minima. 91 
 
 €0 a Jfrientr. 
 
 T~\EAR B , I am surprised that the frail sex 
 
 -*— ^ Should have the power your lofty mind to vex ! 
 
 You're shocked ? Perhaps your statement may be true,— 
 
 In this grand age, there may be one or two 
 
 Who would make model wives, — or parlour maids, 
 
 Or e'en succeed at other decent trades ! 
 
 Brother, I grieve that you should grieve your heart ; 
 
 Have you forgot Ideal in the mart ? 
 
 Perhaps you thought that Love would all suffice ? 
 
 O no ! — at least — not in these latter days ! 
 
 Bank-books are best, for Fashion's grand displays I — 
 
 You loved her ? — That's a worn-out tale ! Ah well — 
 
 It matters not ; and you have said " farewell ! " 
 Your noble love was squandered, and is spurned ; 
 A witless wordling's is with warmth returned. 
 While you were struggling with your noble thought, 
 Her thirst for gold brought all your plans to nought ; 
 She smiled and said " Forget ! " — 'twas quite High Art, 
 To step to richer conquests o'er your heart !
 
 92 Minima. 
 
 And now your heart is like her shapely head, — 
 
 A structure noble, but quite tenantless ! 
 
 Give it a rest I adjure the soft caress I 
 
 Cheer up ; repoint your pen ; with mockery 
 
 Annihilate her stupid treachery ! — 
 
 Between your Art and Love, a g"ulf is fixed, 
 
 Which can't be bridged with Love's few rotten sticks !- 
 
 Adieu to morals. If you must be blind, 
 
 Let none behold the darkness of your mind. 
 
 A woman's love, at best, is dear relief — 
 
 A drop of honey, swoln to seas of grief !
 
 Minima. 93 
 
 ®;o a iSricit OTtall. 
 
 "P^ERCHANCE the ashes of some worthy foeman 
 
 "*■ Repose in thy cement (miscalled Roman) ; 
 
 Maybe some mysteries of sense and feeling 
 
 Thy bricks are to their fellow-bricks revealing I 
 
 How oft art thou compelled, reluctantly, 
 
 To echo back the lover's fervent sigh. 
 
 Who swears with such vain pertinacity 
 
 That even bricks doubt his veracity ! 
 
 With night-fall, 'neath thy shade, the vagrant creeps, 
 
 And wearied with long wand'rings softly sleeps, — 
 
 A wretched wreck, who ever vainly weeps 
 
 Past shadows in Life's strange kaleidescope, — 
 
 Long lost to love, and past all human hope ! 
 
 The ages wane, and still thou dar'st to stand, 
 
 A giant full-stop on Life's shifting sand !
 
 94 Minima^ 
 
 The only record is thy russet rare 
 Left of the men whose labours placed thee there ! 
 And all the splendours of thy scarred visage 
 Are dinted with the melancholy messag^e, 
 That grandeur fades into a sombre gray, 
 That human work is wedded with decay ; 
 Thou teachest plainly that all human trust 
 Surely dissolves and crumbles into dust.
 
 Minima. 95 
 
 TN THE AIR there is music; and sounds of laughter float 
 
 "^ on the breeze ; 
 
 And Hope's gay pennon is streaming, like sun-light on the 
 
 trees : 
 For Youth is the time for Love ; Love spurs on the soul to 
 
 Fame, 
 While Life lets us hopefully wait, and Destiny lets us dream 1 
 
 The notes are a little slower, and sadder the music flows ; 
 And the heart is a little weary, and the eyelids long to close : 
 But the tireless years go on, though Hope has already flown ; 
 And the eyes turn wearily westward, watching till day be done ! 
 
 The music sounds like a sigh, so hushed and mournful and still ; 
 And the way-worn trav'Uer to Fame that hears it, rests on the 
 
 hill. 
 For the guerdon ceases to glitter which charmed him to climb 
 
 the steep ; 
 But the notes are spell-bound, and never again will he wake 
 
 from his sleep I
 
 96 Minima. 
 
 €:d jr. S , lEsq. 
 
 1 \EAR T. , I've learned some things since leaving- 
 
 school ; — 
 Chiefly, that he who loves but plays the fool ! 
 I think that I can give you good advice : 
 If your heart's tender, turn it into ice ; 
 Acquire Love's modern ways, by pondering o'er 
 The grand old tales of mediaeval lore ; 
 Then, strike an attitude, like some pictorial saint, 
 Or, make aesthetic hash of Enid and Geraint ; 
 Talk learnedly of cards, and public feeling ; 
 And grow adept at giddy waltzes' ever wheeling, 
 Then, haunt each noble ball-room, and in haste 
 Go whirling round, and clasp the slimmest waist, — 
 A few such turns, then get the girl alone, 
 Just breathe a hackneyed phrase, and you have won 
 A battered heart, a shapeless, worn-out wreck, 
 A slave that bows to tyrant Fortune's beck ;
 
 Minima. 97 
 
 Then, take her to the altar, and declare 
 That never yet was woman born so fair ! 
 And if in after years, your heart asserts its sway, 
 Pay for her shattered nerves, and g-o your way ! 
 If she be wise, she'll g"o upon the stage, 
 And by vile acting" soon become the rage ; 
 Then you may pose as an enlightened sage — 
 They like their sauces piquant in this cultured age I
 
 98 Minima. 
 
 ^ JTragment* 
 
 Z*^ OME FORTH from out the shades of bygone years, 
 
 For Death has chained thee long^ in slavish fears ; 
 
 Come forth in all thy beauty, like the morn 
 
 Kissing- the clouds that greet it, newly born ; 
 
 For thou hast slept too long- ! O wake ag-ain ! 
 
 Life without thee is only constant pain. 
 
 **)«■#*** 
 
 Only a song-, that breathed in evening air ! 
 Only a lovely face, and golden hair ! 
 And what is left to tell of thy caress ? — 
 A faded flower, and one long golden tress !
 
 Minima. 99 
 
 LEEPING, I dreamed that troubles all were past, 
 ^^ But O, the vision seemed too bright to last! 
 My utmost wish was gained, my heart at rest, 
 
 And Care for ever banished from my breast ! 
 
 The Ideal now was changed to Real : it seemed 
 That thro' the wondrous splendour which now beamed, 
 A glorious fairy-god called me to share 
 Such joy as human heart could scarcely bear. 
 
 It charmed me into bliss ; as summer sun 
 Woos into life the spoils from winter won. 
 And on the borders of the enchanted land, 
 A splendid maiden took me by the hand, 
 
 And kissed me. — And I knew her name was Death I 
 
 1 tasted rapture in her icy breath, 
 Which charmed the feverish pain away ; 
 And night was vanquished by the perfect day I
 
 100 Minifna. 
 
 l^t^uim\% ^i an ©Itr Beau. 
 
 "X T 7ERE I to count the friends of youth 
 
 Who vowed with accents so like truth, 
 I think I could add up a score 
 Who spake such words as evermore / 
 They're mostly married : as for me, 
 I quite contemn the pronoun she. 
 But every dog- must have his day. 
 And I have had a decent stay ! 
 In moonlit glades, 'neath waving trees, 
 I've sighed enough to make a breeze. — 
 We thought that — happiness ! and what 
 Laments we made o'er our sad lot ! 
 Thank Heaven ! ere the bee was hived, 
 (Poetically put !) the day arrived, 
 When both had changed our minds. Alas, 
 That human love is still like glass : 
 To be preserved for future wear, 
 It must be labelled " With Great Care ! "—
 
 Minuna. loi 
 
 Yqu knew poor Flo ? — a lovely girl, 
 
 With jet black hair, in natural curl : 
 
 She swore she loved me only. Well, 
 
 She ended all with one "Farewell," 
 
 And so we parted. Since that dreadful day, 
 
 Three mortal times she has been given away, 
 
 Just like a weekly's Supplement in Colour ! — 
 
 I can't forget she jilted me for Muller ! — 
 
 And so I might go through a long, long list. 
 
 Of many a passion, many a lover's tryst. 
 
 So wags the world — I'll put it in one rhyme ; — 
 
 The sum of Life is. Once upon a time !
 
 I02 Minima. 
 
 Utqtt repeat in ipate. 
 
 Q* LENDER trees that kiss the sky ; 
 
 Clouds that gloom the saddened earth ; 
 Winds that careless rustle by 
 All our sorrow, love, and mirth ; 
 
 April skies that weep and smile ; 
 Flowers that scent the amorous air ; 
 Love vows lingering- for awhile 
 Painting pictures passing fair ; 
 
 Slender trees whose tender shade 
 Marks the Cross beside by the hill ; 
 Leaves that sadly droop and fade ; 
 Hearts that silent grow, and still !
 
 Minima. 103 
 
 jTaretoell— ^trieti— ^u Heboir^ 
 
 I. 
 
 ND must I say Farewell, while still 
 Thy beauty's brightest ray 
 Sheds bliss which not a world of grief 
 Can ever take away ? 
 
 n. 
 
 One glorious gleam of gladsome light 
 
 To me has now been given ; 
 As if reflected from the vault 
 
 Of the bespangled heaven : 
 
 III. 
 And though I pass to other lands, 
 
 And wander where I will, 
 My ear is filled with magic sounds, 
 
 That Time can never still. 
 
 IV. 
 
 What I would wish you, dearest, lips 
 Of man can never say ;
 
 104 Minima. 
 
 A guardian ang-el should attend 
 And watch you night and day, 
 
 V. 
 And brightest thoughts, on seraph wings, 
 
 Should hover o'er your rest, 
 And waft you sweetest melodies 
 
 From the empurpled west, 
 
 VI. 
 Farewell! — I think 'twere better far 
 
 To substitute Adieu ; — 
 With Him I leave my timid hopes, 
 
 Which all pertain to you ! 
 
 VII. 
 I see thee in the future mine. 
 
 In dreams which softly steal 
 Across my sad and anxious heart ; 
 
 And then, indeed, I feel 
 
 VIII. 
 How precious you have grown to be, 
 
 Beyond all things of earth, — 
 Than radiant Fame, or wealth, or joy. 
 
 Or aught of worldly worth !
 
 Minima. 105 
 
 IX. 
 But silent still my love must be, 
 
 Lest you should feel one care, 
 Which might perchance destroy one smile, 
 
 And leave your life less fair, 
 
 X. 
 
 Or trace one silver line upon 
 
 The g"lory of your hair, 
 Or cause one sadden'd thought, which I, 
 
 Who love you, could not share ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 Farewell ! Adieu ! the time is long ; 
 
 The prospect can but wring 
 One sob from me ; for all my life 
 
 Still dares to Hope to cling : 
 
 XII. 
 
 And so I drink a cup to Love, 
 
 And sigh in grief no more. 
 But smiling boldly, sweetheart, dare. 
 
 To falter, Au Revoir !
 
 io6 Minima. 
 
 CTjougfits, 
 
 SUGGESTED BY BEETHOVEN'S SONATA 
 IN A FLAT (Op. 2t). 
 
 T T THEN STILL'D this heart for evermore, 
 
 ' ' When throbs this fever'd pulse no more, 
 When the rapt soul is shoreward fleeting 
 Longing for Heaven's blissful greeting, 
 When gladsome visions meet the eye 
 Of glorious Eternity, 
 The hearts we thought were surely riven, 
 Despite the vows so strongly given, 
 Though severed here, are there united 
 And for their anguish past requited. 
 
 Beneath the azure lofty dome, 
 
 O Love, together we may roam ; 
 
 And hear from angels hymns enchanting, 
 
 And know no sense of aught left wanting, —
 
 Minima. 107 
 
 Restless longings ever ended, 
 
 Hope to accomplishment extended, 
 
 Far beyond mere earthliness, 
 
 And all phantom happiness. 
 
 Which at best brings early sorrow ; 
 
 Beyond vague longings which would borrow • 
 
 Echoes from the realms above, 
 
 Mingling them with earthly love — 
 
 O not here ! far, far beyond 
 
 All this music's grandest sound, 
 
 Love shalt find its end, and be 
 
 Enchained in deathless rhapsody !
 
 io8 Altm'ma. 
 
 ^TpHE LEAFLESS trees are sadly sobbing 
 ■^ Regrets for the old year, slowly dying ; 
 Death is slowly, surely robbing 
 All their life ; and they are sighing. 
 
 Alas, for the dear past, whose glory 
 Seem'd so bright to beam awhile ! 
 But like the sound of oft-told story. 
 It died in Autumn's cliilly smile. 
 
 The trees are types of love below, 
 Which fades the first of Fortune's gifts, 
 And rarely lasts until the snow, 
 But dies at thou^rht of Winter's drifts !
 
 Minima. ioq 
 
 TV yr Y GARDEN, with many a flower, 
 -»-» J- Was brilliant and fragrant and fair ; 
 Save tears they had never a shower, 
 Then how could they flourish there ? 
 
 Poppies, bright poppies — they stand, 
 Some tall, and some humble and low : — 
 Folks say what a wonderful land, 
 Where poppies so brilliant grow ! 
 
 One day, in a moment distraught, 
 I planted a tiny blue flower ; — 
 'Twas thoughtless and cruel — for nought 
 Could save it — it died in an hour !
 
 110 Minima. 
 
 ^«ttfl. 
 
 T T 7E PARTED in summer moonlight, 
 
 When the scent of the newly mown hay 
 Came wafted on wings of the night, 
 With laughter of children at play. 
 
 And the fleeting years ne'er can efface 
 The mem'ry of moonlight and tears, 
 For still in my dreams I retrace 
 The joy and the pain of those years. 
 
 And now in the summer moonlight, 
 I fancy amidst all my pain, 
 That visions as pure and as bright 
 Some day will be granted again !
 
 Minima. 1 1 1 
 
 I. 
 
 73 Y ANGEL hands, 
 
 ^—^ 'Twas sent from the sands 
 Of the far-away, shining- shore ; 
 
 Where all the strife, 
 
 That haunts our life, 
 Is silenced for evermore. 
 
 n. 
 
 'Twas sent from above, 
 
 On the wingfs of a dove ; 
 To poor humanity g^iven : 
 
 It rested to bless, 
 
 With a tender caress, 
 The hearts by sorrow riven. 
 
 III. 
 
 It sent a beam, 
 Like a heavenly gleam, 
 To an old man's dying eyes ;
 
 112 Minima. 
 
 And vanquished all pain, 
 As it echoed a strain 
 Of the music of Paradise : 
 
 IV. 
 
 It carried the story 
 
 Of an untold glory, 
 Where fadeless flowers are found ; 
 
 And fainter it glowed, 
 
 As softly it flowed 
 Beyond Earth's jarring sound : 
 
 V. 
 
 It breathed on the trees, 
 
 As they waved in the breeze, 
 
 And played on their wondrous sheen ; 
 And deepened their tints, 
 With its fairy foot-prints, 
 
 From the realms of the great unseen : 
 
 VI. 
 
 It kissed the crown 
 Of a bright renown 
 On the poet's aching head ;
 
 Minima. 1 1 3 
 
 And ended all toil, 
 As it left its smile 
 On the peaceful face of the dead : 
 
 VII. 
 
 It tinted the ocean, 
 
 In its restless emotion. 
 With varied and rainbow hue ; 
 
 And the waves seemed gold, 
 
 As onward they rolled, 
 And the fragrant breezes blew : 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Like a saintly vision, 
 
 It beamed in a prison. 
 And the fetters seemed to fall, 
 
 As it sped on its way, 
 
 Like diamond spray, 
 And severed the cutting thrall : 
 
 IX. 
 
 Like a glorious desire. 
 It seemed to aspire, 
 To breathe o'er the sufferer's head ; 
 
 P
 
 114 Minima. 
 
 And whispered so sweetly 
 As it hovered so fleetly 
 Of griefs for ever fled : 
 
 X. 
 
 When Time was past, 
 
 Its g-low at the last, 
 Was wondrously golden and mellow ; 
 
 And it rested its head, 
 
 On the far western bed, 
 Like a bird asleep on a billow !
 
 Minima. 1 1 5 
 
 Co ^olitulrc. 
 
 A S THE SIGH of the ocean is lost in its spray, 
 
 Love greets us with smiles, but his smiles pass away, 
 Touching- the years with false glamour and strife, 
 So mingled and mixed in the chaos of life. 
 But the song which the soul of the singer most feels 
 Is the tremulous love which tenderly steals 
 In dim-lighted forest where tapering trees 
 Woo softly a sigh from each wanton breeze, 
 'Mid moonlit splendour whose music awakes 
 The nightingales' note from the fair lilied lakes, 
 Where starlight hath breathed her tender romance. 
 And hushed in their fantastic spirit trance
 
 1 1 6 Minima. 
 
 Slumber the lilies, the lake and the flower, 
 In moony recess or in starry-hung- bower. 
 Your music, O solemn shades, is a spell 
 Whose bliss the worn life of the world cannot tell ! 
 Beyond this unrest, and this thraldom of clay 
 Life's night swiftly fades at the gates of thy day : 
 Henceforward, no accents worldly and rude 
 Shall vex thy deep calm, O sweet Solitude !
 
 Minima. \ 1 7 
 
 'T^HE TWILIGHT shadows fold the day to sleep, 
 -■- While sunset clouds their tranced visions keep ; 
 Spirits of unimaginable hue 
 Come whispering-, in starry train to strew 
 Gems, whose clear lustre rivals stars of night ; 
 They woo all hearts with features rapt and bright. 
 The air is hushed ; and Love breathes forth his song, 
 But dares not sound the thrilling accents long, 
 For faces hover, whose unearthly grace 
 Thro' unforgotten woes, and all past dreaming, 
 Comes with a long-lost lustre faint and gleaming, 
 Like sunset colours shed on snowy peak ; 
 And passionate despair has paled each cheek, — 
 Phantoms whose glory passes earthly things. 
 They darken all the air with beating wings, 
 Till it grows dense, and death-like pallid visions 
 Come panting forth from deep earth-buried prisons : 
 Funereal spectres of the past arise,
 
 1 1 8 Minima. 
 
 Wasted, decrepit, worn by endless woes, 
 
 Which time has heaped upon their elfin locks, 
 
 Hoar with their griefs, like surf-beat, brine-steeped rocks, 
 
 Blanched by the piercing shrieks they shrink to hear 
 
 From drowning fishermen, who perish near, — 
 
 Such rocks as mark the grave-yard of the deep, 
 
 Where fleshless lovers clasp their brides to sleep ! 
 
 Time's long years slowly pass, a weeping number, " 
 
 Till Death cries " Halt !" and chills them into slumber. 
 
 Gaunt Famine's hand unlocks a mystic portal, 
 
 That all who gaze may gazing be immortal ; 
 
 And frost-eyed Grief cries bitterly, "'Forget!" 
 
 And Mammon hides himself; his flaunting gold 
 
 Is nothing worth beyond those gates unrolled. 
 
 A new Life dawns in mystery, half light 
 
 With lambent flame, half lost in shadowed night : 
 
 Its face is pale, and shrouded in a haze 
 
 Which hides its beauty from my aching gaze ; 
 
 Its trembling accents seem as of the dead. 
 
 Stifled beneath a load of unknown dread. 
 
 "Ye worship me in vain!" it cries, — "the least 
 
 Am I of shadows circling West and East ! 
 
 Cowards ! who cringe to Death ! he hath no sting ; 
 
 'Tis I who teach your joys to take their wing ;
 
 Minima. 1 1 9 
 
 Death is my slave ; to you, a passing guest, 
 
 Who opes my gates, and leads you to your rest ! 
 
 On earth, I am a bubble blown by care, 
 
 Which floats in wildering colour through the air. 
 
 And shows the way to glory ere it fades 
 
 And bursts and passes to eternal shades ! 
 
 'Tis Death awakes my lasting melody. 
 
 Which shall reverberate eternally ! 
 
 Oh fix your eyes on Death, for he alone 
 
 Can break your fetters, end your mortal groan ! "
 
 1 20 Minima^ 
 
 I. 
 
 IV yf" ETHINKS the solitary star 
 ■^'-*- Best lights its sphere of sky; 
 And lonely birds have strongest wing-s, 
 And soonest learn to fly. 
 
 II. 
 The image of the lonely ship 
 
 Shines best in lonely sea ; 
 So softly charming Solitude 
 
 Unfolds its sanctity, 
 
 III. 
 
 And seeks some worthy, noble love, 
 
 Which is not of the world, 
 Where lips are false, and lives are false, 
 
 And both are restless whirl'd. 
 
 IV. 
 To gaze beyond oneself, beyond 
 
 The void of loud deceit,- 
 Instead of bows to worldly shrines 
 
 To kneel at seraphs' feet, —
 
 Minima. 1 2 1 
 
 V. 
 To listen for a spirit's song 
 
 In every falling leaf, — 
 To glean a ray of sun-light gold 
 
 From every autumn sheaf, — 
 
 VI. 
 
 To steal a new sweet thought of love 
 
 From every passing cloud, — 
 And not to seek for pleasures new 
 
 hi every thoughtless crowd, — 
 
 VII. 
 These are the poet's holy joys ; — 
 
 How can I tell in rhymes 
 Their guerdon ? — glints of glory snatched 
 
 From realms beyond these times I 
 
 VIII. 
 Dost think this utter bliss ? — O glance 
 
 Upon the starry roll, 
 And learn how deep a shadow Death 
 
 Flings o'er the magic scroll ! 
 
 IX. 
 
 And ask no more how poets sing ; — 
 Their strife, to please mankind,
 
 122 Minima. 
 
 While ang-els only can behold 
 The working-s of their mind ! 
 
 X. 
 
 The Poet breathes a frequent sigh ; 
 
 Bright visions are so brief ! 
 The world scarce hears the song, before 
 
 The singer dies in grief ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 The song makes glad the world's great heart, 
 
 If sunny face it wears ; 
 Few think the glowing fancy comes 
 
 From cradle wet with tears ! 
 
 XII. 
 O give one gentle thought to him 
 
 Who chants in notes so strong ; 
 The bird who sings the loudest note 
 
 Must soonest end his song !
 
 Mtntjna. 123 
 
 Cfjc iSirtfj of ^loctig. 
 
 "T^RE THE WORLD grew gray with its years, ere the 
 
 ■■' — ' stars had studded the sky, 
 
 Or Decay had proclaimed abroad that all things must wither 
 
 and die, — 
 While the sensitive splendour Fame, untouched in its fabulous 
 
 g"Jory, 
 Lay lulled like a slumbering note in the page of a musical 
 
 story, — 
 When the earth lay spread like a sea, — then a great wan moon 
 
 arose, 
 And touched Time's turbulent billow, and Chaos became 
 
 repose ;
 
 124 Minima. 
 
 And the mists and the moonlig-ht mingled, like a dim infinity, 
 And palm-clad islands appeared, and peopled the silver sea : 
 The great gods said they were fair, and from cavern'd and 
 
 cloud-built caves 
 They laid a spell on the seas, and the foam of their tide-driven 
 
 waves, 
 And fashioned them beings of beauty, and amorous-eyed 
 
 desire, 
 Who awoke all the odorous night as with sunset's changing 
 
 fire, — 
 Beings fairer than fancy, wrought from the texture of dreams, — 
 Pensive as sapphire that shines with amaranthine gleams, — 
 Nursed in the sphere of thought, — airy as fairies' wings, — 
 Sad as a broken dream, once full of utterless things, — 
 Wild as a vision of night on a waste and treeless shore, — 
 Darker than waveless depths of the ocean's wreck-strewn 
 
 floor, — 
 Trembling with ecstacies wild, they came like the timid dove, 
 And passed the portal of passion, and entered the temple of 
 
 love.
 
 Minima. 
 
 12- 
 
 II. 
 
 And the gods became as men, for the white loves wooed them 
 
 with smiles, 
 And held their fancies enchained, with strange and voluptuous 
 
 wiles, 
 Till Music and Time fell asleep ; — but Love hovered near. 
 vSo the sad after-glow of their passion formed notes seraphic 
 
 and clear, 
 Which float like the suubeams in space, or fall in melodious 
 
 rhyme, — 
 A blending of music and love, to lighten the sadness of Time !
 
 126 Minima. 
 
 ^ iPrager* 
 
 I. 
 
 /^ LOVE, my love, when thou art wrapped in sleep, 
 ^-^ And airy visions of thy brain unfold 
 A heaven of joys which in love's languor steep, 
 Like lilies slumbering on a bed of gold, — 
 Fair Love, then dream of me ! 
 
 H. 
 
 When night and sleep have weighed my eyelids down, 
 And my tired eyes are closed in l^indl}*^ rest, 
 Which from my brow sm.oothes out the anxious frown, 
 When passion's waves no more surge in my breast, 
 Fair Love, I'll dream of thee !
 
 Minima. \2i 
 
 Eo 
 
 T CARE not when, but I know some day 
 "^ Death will restore what you took away ! 
 For only when life shall utterly cease 
 Can I hope to reg"ain my broken peace ! 
 O come to me then, when the lamp burns low, 
 And kiss me once more before I gfo I
 
 123 JMinima. 
 
 Cfje lloittc of Hobe. 
 
 T T THERE the feathery palm is greenest, 
 
 ' ' Nodding- to a southern breeze, 
 Where the Ocean blue is deepest, 
 Sun-kissed Isle of sunlit ease, — 
 
 II. 
 When the coral-surf is breaking- 
 Monotonous and musical. 
 And its tinted dew-drops shaking 
 Chang-e to jasper and to opal, — 
 
 III. 
 
 Where the winding river flows 
 Limpidly in line of light. 
 Restless ripplings of repose, 
 Warbling lays of fond delight, —
 
 Minima. 129 
 
 IV. 
 Starlit sheen on sapphire seas, 
 Softly shimmering bound the bay,- 
 Pearly glints of perfect peace, — 
 Lucid lamps of lightsome ray, — 
 
 V. 
 
 O to linger here with thee, Love, 
 Basking in thy sunny smile, 
 Wandering o'er the sands, Love, 
 Of this flowery, fragrant Isle I
 
 i.^o Minima. 
 
 ^ ^aral)Ie* 
 
 I. 
 
 "r)OSSESSION was peacefully sleeping", 
 -*- And Hope had no thought of to-morrow, 
 While laughter unwedded from weeping 
 Slept far from the shadows of sorrow. 
 
 II. 
 
 Possession's eyes sated and red, 
 And Hope a vain dream of the past, 
 And Life but for memory dead, 
 And sorrows that burn and will last ! 
 
 III. 
 
 Despair that knows no beguiling, 
 Regrets that are hotter than fire, 
 A soul that is scornfully smiling 
 O'er the ashes of burnt-out desire !
 
 Minima. 13: 
 
 2^6^ JTuture ilears* 
 
 I. 
 
 r\ LONGED FOR, tarrying, Future Years, 
 ^-^ While lonely now we pray, 
 Help us with Hope to overcome 
 The trials of to-day ! 
 
 11. 
 
 O Future years, will hearts that now 
 
 Beat wildly in emotion, 
 Before your dawn, be chill'd and lost 
 
 In dark oblivion's Ocean ? 
 
 III. 
 Or will the toiling soul that pants 
 
 To-day, pursuing- Fame, 
 Lie, when ye come, a blackened mass, 
 
 Consumed in its own flame ? 
 
 IV. 
 
 O future years, e'en now ye dawn ! 
 
 O far-off Future Years! 
 O win us to an angel's smile, 
 
 And spare these martyr-tears !
 
 132 Minima. 
 
 ^ong. 
 
 1^ yT Y DREAMS of thee, Love., are g-entle and pure, 
 
 As the dawn of the day when we meet, 
 Ere Love had destroyed his amorous lure 
 
 And left me to years of regret I 
 I saw pale moonbeams, that shine in thine eyes ; 
 
 And the breezes that came from the sea. 
 Fell lang'uid and soft in odorous sig"hs 
 
 In their voiceless worship of thee ! 
 
 But now I am sad -am sad to despair, 
 
 For love and passion are dead, 
 And vaguely my eyes look forth with a stare 
 
 That tells but of tears yet unshed I
 
 Mtntma. 133 
 
 Co a H^ott 
 
 I. 
 
 'T^HE WORLD hath claimed thee long- enoug-h, 
 •^ O cease with it to trifle, 
 And let ignoble thoughts no more 
 Their noble brethren stifle ! 
 
 II. 
 
 Go, ring on bells of centuries 
 
 A peal both loud and clear ; 
 The clarion note of Fame must drown 
 
 The mocking world's base jeer ! 
 
 III. 
 Unveil thy mind, show forth its power, 
 
 And let its purest ray 
 Pierce mists of craft and ignorance, 
 
 And mark the dawn of day ! 
 
 IV. 
 
 Arise ! arise ! nor let thy muse remain 
 
 In sensual dreams to bask ! 
 But draw the sword, war with the wrong 
 
 Or perish in the task.
 
 134 Minima. 
 
 r^\ FALSE, and O fair ! — ask me not to forget 
 ^-^ The few, short moments so blest ! 
 I value them more for the world of regret 
 They implanted so deep in my breast ! 
 
 You ask me, why ? — but 1 never can tell ; 
 
 My feelings I cannot dissect : 
 Go, ask of the sea, as it sounds its storm-knell 
 
 Why the ships are broken and wrecked ! 
 
 I have seen a cold smile, or a withering sneer 
 
 At sorrows that pity required ! 
 And so, to my heart, when no one is near, 
 
 I whisper — she loved and grew tired 1
 
 Minima. 135 
 
 Co Ittusic* 
 
 J AM ONE with the sigfhs of the sea, I float like the foam of 
 
 her waves ; 
 I am one with the splendours of wealth, one with the g-rass- 
 
 grown g^raves, — 
 With the purples and passions of love, that fade into splendours 
 
 white, 
 Or fall like a lily asleep mid odours and rich rose light, — 
 Like the wreckag'e of life which is cast afar on the shores of 
 
 regret ; 
 Like the faces that pallidly greet us with smiles we fain would 
 
 forget ; — 
 Like the infinite kisses of love on the white, sad brow of sleep. 
 Or the sombre shadows that flicker and o'er grim ruins creep. 
 Like the lightest leaves that die, 'neath Autumn's golden hand. 
 Or the faintest sunlight shimmer that falls on wave-washed 
 
 sand. 
 And I place all the sig-hs and the sunlight in my casket of 
 
 laughter and tears. 
 And weave from the winds and the moonbeams the songs for 
 
 the after years.
 
 136 Minima. 
 
 "IV >1" Y LIFE is like an echoless refrain, 
 
 Which, wafted from the depths of byg^one pain, 
 Seems evermore to breathe the word " adieu " 
 To all the vows I once deemed fondly true. 
 But Love was tired : I bound her to my breast : 
 My recompense was this distraught unrest, 
 Which racks my soul and leaves me here to languish 
 In deathly horror, or in life-long anguish, 
 Until I hear upon Time's furthest shore 
 The fateful echo — Never — nevermore !
 
 Minima. 1 3 ; 
 
 JTuneial at ^ea* 
 
 'T^HE FEEBLE lamps displaced the g-loom of night, 
 ^ For Death was borne above the Ocean wave ; 
 And strangest visions crowded on my sight. 
 The whole wide sea became one hungry grave, 
 Which tried to stay us in our steady flight, — 
 One charnel house it moaned with sullen roar, 
 And shone with ghastly phosphorescent light. 
 While devils waited for the freight we bore : 
 O God ! to hear that sullen, sickening splash ! 
 The furies danced like beasts about the dead ; 
 And thunder crash, and lurid lightning flash, 
 Roared all the funeral service that was said !
 
 Mt^Mnitttn.
 
 UtMnitti). 
 
 I. 
 
 l~^IMLY the lamp-light flickered o'er 
 
 A gorg-eous room, 
 Fragrant with costly odours rare, 
 And flowers' perfume. 
 
 II. 
 
 A strain of music sounded, such 
 
 As Angels hear ; 
 Re-echoing as from heavenly halls, 
 
 It filled the air : 
 
 III. 
 
 I heard, and knew my softened heart, 
 
 No more my own ; 
 For, from that hour, I held my life 
 
 For thee alone.
 
 142 Re-Untied. 
 
 IV. 
 And thou didst take into thy care 
 
 My vanquished heart, 
 Which merged into thine own, and had 
 
 No life apart. 
 
 V. 
 
 What need for words ? they are but sound 
 
 Idle at best : 
 We learned a deeper lore than voice 
 
 Ever expressed !
 
 Re-United, 143 
 
 II. 
 
 I. 
 
 The purest tints of azure, culled 
 
 From morning- sky, 
 By heavenly hands were pictured true 
 
 In thy bright eye ; 
 
 II. 
 Like sunset splendours, flushes deep 
 
 Were there revealing- 
 Visions of damask roses rich 
 
 O'er lilies stealing ! 
 
 III. 
 But why attempt ? — no mortal hand 
 
 Could ever paint 
 Such beauty as was thine, which made 
 
 All other faint ! 
 
 rv. 
 Thou seemedst to me an angel pure, 
 
 But lingering here 
 To brighten with a heavenly ray 
 
 Our world so drear !
 
 144 Re-United. 
 
 V. 
 
 We loved not with the measured calm 
 
 That men call love ; 
 Our love through every thrilling nerve 
 
 Would ever move, 
 
 VI. 
 
 And pass beyond the utmost range 
 
 Of dullards' thought, — 
 With utmost bliss, or peril dire, 
 
 Such love is fraught. 
 
 VII. 
 
 Our lives to us seemed like some old 
 
 Elysian story, 
 Etherealized by pure 
 
 Effulgent glory ! 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Each day was as an Idyl left 
 In dreams to steep.
 
 Re-United. 145 
 
 Which with its g-entle lang-uor lulled 
 Our souls to sleep 
 
 IX 
 Or like a purple cloudlet lost 
 
 In g-olden West, 
 Kissed by the splendours of the sun 
 
 To evenings rest. 
 
 X. 
 
 No fear of coming' woe e'er tinged 
 
 A love like ours ; 
 Which seemed a priceless stolen gem 
 
 From Fairy bowers. 
 
 XI. 
 Alas, our time for parting came ; 
 
 And with a dread, 
 We felt that never could the word 
 
 *' Farewell " be said ! 
 
 XII. 
 
 And so we never breathed the sound 
 
 Of sad " good-bye," 
 But left our joys and hopes with just 
 
 A simple sigh.
 
 146 Re-U7iited. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Severed our lives might be ; but still 
 
 Our hearts were one : 
 I never seemed in farthest lands 
 
 To be alone !
 
 Re- United. 147 
 
 III. 
 
 I. 
 
 The months flew by; I crossed o'er leagues 
 
 Of restless sea ; 
 But every month that passed brought news 
 
 Which told of thee : 
 
 II. 
 
 Still happiness was ours, but oh, 
 
 So incomplete ! 
 Our every prayer urged on the Time 
 
 When we should meet. 
 
 III. 
 
 I had some small success which made 
 
 The way seem clearer ; 
 And every hour seemed bright that brought 
 
 The day still nearer,
 
 148 Re-United. 
 
 IV. 
 When I might call thee mine, and find 
 
 Our dear dreams true ; 
 And pictures fairer than our hopes 
 
 Fancy ne'er drew. 
 
 V. 
 
 Then came a letter bringing woe 
 
 And grief untold, — 
 A lordly stranger sought to buy 
 
 Thy love with gold ! 
 
 VI. 
 He spoke of love ! this soulless thing, 
 
 This lump of earth, 
 Whom thou wert forced to wed by those 
 
 Who gave thee birth ! 
 
 VII. 
 They thought it good for thee, forsooth, — 
 
 I had no gold ! 
 And what is love but merchandise. 
 
 Bartered and sold ? 
 
 VIII. 
 It seemed a ghastly farce to me, 
 A monstrous lie,
 
 Re- United. 1 49 
 
 Invented for a hideous joke 
 By devilish Phantasy I 
 
 IX. 
 
 And then another letter came, 
 
 And still more sad ; 
 Unless I reached thee soon, my thoughts 
 
 Must drive me mad !
 
 150 Re-United. 
 
 IV. 
 
 I. 
 
 Three weary weeks — each lingering hour 
 
 Seem'd as a day ! 
 And yet with engine throbs, the ship 
 
 Toil'd on her way. 
 
 II. 
 Then came a cruel storm, which lashed 
 
 The waves to foam, 
 The ship, disabled, still was far 
 
 From port and home. 
 
 III. 
 The green seas boiled, and thunders vast 
 
 Tortured the air. 
 But oh ! their wildest roar was calm 
 
 To my despair !
 
 
 ,'««H 
 
 •^'
 
 Re- United. 151 
 
 rv. 
 
 By masts, by shrouds, by howling- winds, 
 
 My knell seem'd toU'd, 
 For ere I reached thy side, I thought 
 
 Thou wouldst be sold ! 
 
 V. 
 
 I feasted full of gfrief — how long-, 
 
 I ne'er could tell, 
 Till all the world grew dim, and earth 
 
 Became a hell ; 
 
 VI. 
 
 And then there came a blank, — I think 
 
 They called it madness ; 
 I only knew that Thought was drowned 
 
 'Neath floods of sadness ! 
 
 VII. 
 I saw fantastic shapes, inwrought 
 
 Most wondrously, 
 In inky blackness on a blank 
 
 Of dark Eternity ; 
 
 VIII. 
 And gibbering, ghoul-like, gilded fiends 
 Were ever floating
 
 152 Re- United. 
 
 Throughout the murky air with eyes 
 Red-flaming-, gloating-, — 
 
 IX. 
 Their eyes beneath their blood-stained locks 
 
 Of golden hair, 
 Glittered and rolled, and lit the night 
 
 With serpent -glare ; 
 
 X. 
 
 And noisome bats fed on my brain 
 
 With poison'd fang, 
 And when I shrieked in anguish, fiends 
 
 Looked on and sang. 
 
 XI. 
 The arching roof seemed made of streams 
 
 Of molten metal, 
 Which withering, quivering, smoking, seemed 
 
 To me to settle 
 
 XII. 
 Upon my temples, till I sank 
 
 Beneath the weight : 
 While howling chasms yawned and groaned 
 
 The words Too Late !
 
 Re-United. 153 
 
 XIII. 
 And then the spectres bound me fast 
 
 With gfolden chain, 
 Until I wrenched the gallingf links 
 
 Of gold in twain 1 
 
 xrv. 
 
 For I must reach my love I no power 
 
 Could hold me back ! 
 Thro' wreck of worlds I would have passed 
 
 On lightning's track !
 
 154 Re- United. 
 
 V. 
 
 I. 
 
 Beneath a brilliant moon, I stole 
 
 Away, one nig-ht, 
 With gladness 'neath its rays I passed, 
 
 Guided aright. 
 
 IT. 
 Ceaseless, unwearied, still I toiled 
 
 Along the Vvay ; 
 One thought sustained me every hour 
 
 Through many a day, — 
 
 III, 
 I thought that I should tear my love 
 
 From his harsh grasp, 
 That nothing in this world could keep 
 
 Her from my clasp.
 
 Re-United. 155 
 
 VI. 
 
 I. 
 
 I reached my goal one eve, beneath 
 
 The faint tvvilig-ht, 
 I stayed my beating- heart, until 
 
 The noon of night : 
 
 II. 
 
 I knew that thou wouldst come and breathe 
 
 Thy love to me, 
 I knew thou wouldst be glad that I 
 
 Had come to thee ! 
 
 III. 
 
 How high my Hope then beat, to see 
 
 Thy face again, 
 And snatch thee, O my love, from woe 
 
 And life-long pain !
 
 156 Re-United. 
 
 rv. 
 
 The wondering moon shone forth, and lit 
 
 The landscape fair, — 
 When last I trode that sward, we walked 
 
 Together there, — 
 
 V. 
 
 I saw the bank, beneath whose shade 
 
 Thou saidst there grew 
 Forget-me-nots which waited there 
 
 Our path to strew. 
 
 VI. 
 The night wore on, but still, O love, 
 
 Thou didst not come. 
 And then I thought, perchance, that thou 
 
 Hadst fled from home, 
 
 VII. 
 Because I had not come to thee ! 
 
 That dread affright 
 Had all but stopped my heart, when lo, 
 
 A gleaming light 
 
 VIII. 
 Shone from the sacred spot — the room 
 Where first we met ;
 
 Re-United. 157 
 
 I fancied thee in tears for all 
 Our hopes o'erset, 
 
 IX. 
 
 And needing me to soothe thy grief ! — 
 
 I softly crept 
 Beneath the casement where the faint 
 
 Sweet jasmine slept, 
 
 X. 
 
 Ah, then I knew why thou hadst let 
 
 Me wait alone ! 
 I think that sight might well have changed 
 
 My heart to stone ! 
 
 XI. 
 
 I saw two flickering wicks that lit 
 
 The midnight air, 
 And shone upon a coffin — Love, 
 
 I found thee there ! 
 
 XII. 
 Thy looks were peaceful ; thou hadst passed 
 
 Beyond all pain ; 
 I knew 'twere cruelty to wish 
 
 Thee here again !
 
 158 Re-United. 
 
 XIII. 
 A look was on thy beauteous face, 
 
 So still, so set ; 
 It told that e'en in sleep, thy soul 
 
 Could ne'er forget ! 
 
 XIV. 
 And in the air, I read these words, 
 
 Written in flame, — 
 " Whatever cometh, Death shall be 
 
 Preferred to shame ! " 
 
 XV. 
 I could not weep, I could not speak, 
 
 For agony ! 
 The silvery moon turned black, and all 
 
 Was vacancy !
 
 Re- United. 159 
 
 VII. 
 
 I. 
 
 Again I see thee, Love I but now 
 
 In radiant bliss ! 
 I know that thou art blest beyond 
 
 Such life as this ! 
 
 II. 
 
 I watch thy loving glance which seems 
 To sweetly say, — 
 
 " Be brave, O Love, and wait thy hour- 
 Then come away I " 
 
 m. 
 
 The darkness cannot linger long ; 
 
 Soon once again 
 I know that I shall take thy hand 
 And end our pain !
 
 A. WHITE AND CO., PRINTERS, 
 WILSON STREET, FINSBURY SQUARE, LONDON.
 
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