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He thought to quell the stubborn hearts of oak,
Madman!-to chain with chains, and bind with bands
That island queen that sways the floods and lands

From Ind to Ind, but in fair daylight woke,
When from her wooden walls, lit by sure hands,
With thunders, and with lightnings, and with smoke,
Peal after peal, the British battle broke,
Lulling the brine against the Coptic sands.
We taught him lowlier moods, when Elsinore
Heard the war moan along the distant sea,
Rocking with shattered spars, with sudden fires
Flamed over: at Trafalgar yet once more

We taught him; late he learned humility,

Perforce, like those whom Gideon schooled with briars.

MARIANA.

WITH blackest moss the flower plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all;
The rusted nails fell from the knots

That held the peach to the garden wall.
The broken sheds looked sad and strange,
Unlifted was the clinking latch,
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.

She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,-
I would that I were dead!"

Her tears fell with the dews at even,

Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven, Either at morn or eventide.

After the flitting of the bats,

When thickest dark did trance the sky, She drew her casement curtain by, And glanced athwart the glooming flats. She only said, "The night is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, "I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!"

Upon the middle of the night,

Waking, she heard the night fowl crow:
The cock sung out an hour ere light;
From the dark fen the oxen's low
Came to her without hope of change,
In sleep she seemed to walk forlorn,
Till cold winds woke the grey-eyed morn
About the lonely moated grange.

She only said, "The day is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;

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About a stone-cast from the wall,

A sluice with blackened waters slept,
And o'er it many, round and small,
The clustered marishmosses crept.
Hard by a poplar shook alway,

All silver green with gnarled bark,
For leagues no other tree did dark
The level waste, the rounding grey.

She only said, "My life is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;
She said, "I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!"

And ever when the moon was low,
And the shrill winds were up an' away,

In the white curtain, to and fro,

She saw the gusty shadow sway.

But when the moon was very low,

And wild winds bound within their cell, The shadow of the poplar fell

Upon her bed, across her brow.

She only said, "The night is dreary,
He cometh not," she said;

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All day within the dreamy house,

The doors upon their hinges creaked; The blue fly sung i' the pane; the mouse Behind the mouldering wainscot shrieked, Or from the crevice peered about.

Old faces glimmered through the doors, Old footsteps trod the upper floors, Old voices called her from without. She only said, " My life is dreary, He cometh not," she said; She said, I am aweary, aweary, I would that I were dead!"

The sparrow's chirrup on the roof,
The slow clock ticking, and the sound
Which to the wooing wind aloof

Her sense; but most she loathed the hour
When the thick moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Down-sloped was westering in his bower.
Then, said she, " I am very dreary,
He will not come," she said;
She wept, "I am aweary, aweary,
Oh, God, that I were dead!"

THE MERMAN.

WHO would be
A merman bold,
Sitting alone,
Singing alone
Under the sea,

With a crown of gold,

On a throne?

I would be a merman bold;

I would sit and sing the whole of the day;
I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of power;
But at night I would roam abroad and play
With the mermaids in and out of the rocks,-
Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower,
And, holding them back by their flowing locks,
I would kiss them often under the sea,
And kiss them again till they kissed me
Laughingly, laughingly;

And then we would wander away, away,
To the pale green sea-groves straight and high,
Chasing each other merrily.

There would be neither moon nor star;

But the wave would make music above us far;
Low thunder and light in the magic night,—
Neither moon nor star.

We would call aloud in the dreamy dells,
Call to each other, and whoop and cry

All night, merrily, merrily:

They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells, Laughing and clapping their hands between,

But I would throw to them back in mine
Turkis, and agate, and almondine;
Then, leaping out upon them unseen,
I would kiss them often under the sea,
And kiss them again till they kissed me
Laughingly, laughingly.

Oh! what a happy life were mine
Under the hollow-hung ocean green!
Soft are the moss-beds under the sea;
We would live merrily, merrily.

THE MERMAID.

WHO would be
A mermaid fair,
Singing alone,
Combing her hair
Under the sea,
In a golden curl,
With a comb of pearl,
On a throne?

I would be a mermaid fair;

I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;
And still as I combed I would sing and say,

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Who is it loves me? who loves not me?"

I would comb my hair till my ringlets would fall,
Low adown, low adown,

From under my starry sea-bud crown,

Low adown and around,

And I should look like a fountain of gold

Springing alone,

With a shrill inner sound,

Over the throne

In the midst of the hall;

Till that great sea-snake under the sea,

From his coiled sleeps in the central deeps,

Would slowly trail himself sevenfold

Round the hall where I sate, and look in at the gate,

With his large calm eyes for the love of me.

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