Sweeter than wild bird's throat,
Backward my memory float,
On music's wing my heart convey,
Where southern stars in beauty glow,
And Egmont lifts her brow of snow.

Again I'll see our long lost home
Upon Wairoa's grassy plain;
Among the fern the cattle roam ;
With idle rein upon his arm o'erthrown
The shepherd guards his flocks again,
And his shrill whistle with his dog's bark
blends,

As down the hill the woolly stream descends.

Or now, the early "muster" over,
With Jim and Tom I'm slowly riding
Through the home-paddock white with
clover,

And followed close by Nip and Rover,
Their warm allegiance now dividing,
For Tom's fair sisters here we meet,
And welcoming smiles their weary swains
do greet.

Here in the world's great heart abiding,
We two have left the happy isle;
Australian grass Tom's face is hiding,
Jim in the spirit-land is riding.
From weary thoughts my heart beguile !
Sing, linnet, sing to me,
Sing my soul across the sea.

O SHEPHERDS! take my crook from me,
For I no longer here can stay.
There comes a whisper from the sea,
Calling my soul from you away;
Friends of my heart! long tried and true,
O let me leave my crook with you.
An idle shepherd have I lain,
Dreaming while sheep-dogs barked in
vain,

Or chasing rhymes to wreathe the strain
Which from sweet musing grew.

Above the stars I drift in thought,
Melodious murmurings in my ears;
As though the upborne spirit caught
Soft echoes from the higher spheres.
But see! far up the azure height,
Bright Sirius hails me with his light!
My soul, impatient of delay,

Rides on the wings of thought away,
My heart alone with you can stay:
My Shepherds dear- Good night!

To greet their sire returning
The children leave their bed.
With laugh and shout they come,

That merry band,
To grasp his hand

And bid him welcome home!

THE WALKER OF THE SNOW

Nor far into the valley

Had I dipped upon my way, When a dusky figure joined me, In a capuchon of gray,

Bending upon the snow-shoes,

With a long and limber stride;
And I hailed the dusky stranger,
As we travelled side by side.
But no token of communion
Gave he by word or look,
And the fear-chill fell upon me
At the crossing of the brook.

For I saw by the sickly moonlight,
As I followed, bending low,
That the walking of the stranger

Left no footmarks on the snow.

Then the fear-chill gathered o'er me,
Like a shroud around me cast,
As I sank upon the snow-drift
Where the Shadow-hunter passed.

And the otter-trappers found me,
Before the break of day,
With my dark hair blanched and
whitened

As the snow in which I lay.

But they spoke not as they raised

me;

For they knew that in the night I had seen the Shadow-hunter, And had withered in his blight.

Sancta Maria speed us!

The sun is falling low, Before us lies the valley

Of the Walker of the Snow!

SCENES FROM "SAUL”

DAVID EXORCISING MALZAH, THE EVIL SPIRIT FROM THE LORD

SCENE. A chamber of the palace. DAVID playing on his harp. SAUL enters and listens, and at length DAVID ceases.

Saul. Still more, still more I feel the demon move

Amidst the gloomy branches of my breast,
As moves a bird that buries itself deeper
Within its nest at stirring of the storm.
[DAVID plays again.
Were ever sounds so sweet! - where am
I? O,

I have been down in hell, but this is heaven!

It grows yet sweeter, — 't is a wondrous air. Methinks I lately died a hideous death, And that they buried me accursed and cursing.

But this is not the grave; for, surely,

music

Comes not to reanimate man 'neath the

clods.

Let me not think on 't! yet a fiend fierce

tore me.

Ah, I remember now, too much remember; But I am better: still methinks I fainted; Or was the whole a fearful, nightmare dream?

Nay, am I yet not dreaming? No; I wake: And, as from dream or as from being born, Without the outery of a mother's travail ; Or, as if waking from a revery,

I to myself am ushered by strange music, That, in its solemn gentleness, falls on me Like a superior's blessing. Give me more Of this sweet benefit.

[After having listened again. Who is this stranger? Yes, I know him

now.

"T is not a heavenly spirit, though so like one,
With curving arms encompassing the harp,
As clasps the landscape the aërial bow :
It is the minstrel youth from Bethlehem ;
In form, indeed, surpassing beautiful.
Methinks he doth address himself to sing:
I'll listen, for I love him as he sits
Rapt, like a statue conjured from the air.
Hist!

David. [Sings, accompanying himself on his harp.]

O Lord, have mercy on the king;
The evil spirit from him take;
His soul from its sore suffering
Deliver, for thy goodness' sake.

Saul. [Aside.] He for me prays.

O, heal thine own Anointed's hurt;
Let evil from his thoughts be driven;
And breathe upon his troubled heart
The balmy sense of fault forgiven.

Saul. [Aside.] I would not hide my faults; amen.

Great God, thou art within this place;
The universe is filled with thee:

To all thou givest strength and grace;
O, give the king thy grace to see.

Saul. [Aside.] What have I done deserved the loss of grace?

I cannot say "amen ; -and if I did,
My feeble amen would be blown away
Before it had reached heaven. I cannot
say it:
There disbelief takes prisoner my tongue!

As after winter cometh spring,
Make joy unto his soul return;
And me, in thy good pleasure, bring
To tend my flock where I was born.

Saul. [Aside.] So able, yet so humble ! [Aloud.] David, no; Thou shalt remain and be mine armorbearer.

What, wouldst thou seek again the idle downs,

'Midst senseless sheep, to spend the listless

And how to leaven others with thy courage;
How win from Ammon and the strong
Philistine,

And how at last to drink triumphantly,
From goblet of victorious return,
The blood-red wine of war.

Meantime, thy lyric pleasures need not end;
For the fair maidens of the court affect
Music and song. Go now and tell the
Queen

All the advantage thou hast been to me.
[Exit David.
How potent is the voice of music! stronger
Even than is a king's command. How oft
In vain have I adjured this demon hence!
O Music, thou art a magician! Strange,
Most strange, we did not sooner think of
thee,

And charm us with thy gentle sorcery.

THE FLIGHT OF MALZAH

Malzah. Music, music hath its sway; Music's order I obey:

I have unwound myself at sound
From off Saul's heart, where coiled I lay.
'Tis true, awhile I've lost the
game;
Let fate and me divide the blame.
And now away, away; but whither,
Whither, meantime, shall I go?
Erelong I must returned be hither.
There's Jordan, Danube, and the Po,
And Western rivers huge, I know :
There's Ganges, and the Euphrates,
Nilus and the stretching seas:
There's many a lake and many a glen
To rest me, as in heaven, again;
With Alps, and the Himalayan range :—
And there's the Desert for a change.
Whither shall I go?

I'll sit i' the sky,
And laugh at mortals and at care;
(Not soaring, as before, too high,
And bring upon myself a snare ;)
But out my motley fancies spin
Like cobwebs on the yellow air;
Laugh bright with joy, or dusky grin
In changeful mood of seance there.
The yellow air! the yellow air!
He's great who's happy anywhere.

Or swell and fill whom from the harmonious lyre,

And man may lead them wheresoe'er he wills,

And stare to see the nude demoniac
Sit clothed and void of frenzy. I'll be-

gone,

And take a posy with me from Saul's garden. [Exit; and soon re-enters, bearing a huge nosegay, and thereat snuffing.

Shall I fling it in the earth's face, whence I took it!

Albeit I've seen, perhaps, flowers as mean in heaven.

Well, I will think that these are heaven's.
Alack,

This is a poor excuse for asphodel;
And yet it has the true divine aroma.
Here's ladslove, and the flower which even
death

Cannot unscent, the all-transcending rose.
Here's gilly-flower, and violets dark as eyes
Of Hebrew maidens. There's convolvulus,
That sickens ere noon and dies ere evening.
Here's monkey's-cap. - Egad! 't would
cap a monkey

To say what I have gathered; for I spread my arms

And closed them like two scythes. I have crushed many;

I've sadly mangled my lilies. However,

here

Is the august camellia, and here 's marigold, And, as I think, i' the bottom two vast sunflowers.

There are some bluebells, and a pair of foxgloves

(But not of the kind that Samson's foxes wore).

That's mint; and here is something like a thistle

Wherewith to prick my nose should I grow sleepy.

O, I've not half enumerated them!
Here's that and that, and many trifling

things,

MALZAH AND THE ANGEL ZELEHTHA

SCENE. The Alps. Time, night, with stars.
Enter MALZAH, walking slowly.
Malzah. So, so; I feel the signal.
It seems to reach me through the air,
To Saul it prompts me to repair.

I wish 't would cease; it doth not please
Me now to terminate my leisure.
I was alone; and here to groan
At present is my greatest pleasure.
I'll come anon; I say begone;
What is the wayward King to me?
I say begone; I'll come anon.
O, thou art strong; I'll follow thee.

[Exit, and enter the angel Zelehtha. Zelehtha. He flees, he flees, across the

Due to the Hebrew King, with onward heed,
Like to a hound that snuffs the scent of
blood.
I'll follow him.

TWILIGHT

[Exit.

THE day was lingering in the pale northwest,

And light was hanging o'er my head, Night where a myriad stars were spread; While down in the east, where the light was least,

Seemed the home of the quiet dead.