L'éternité est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces deux mots seulement, dans le silence des tombeaux : "Toujours! jamais! Jamais! toujours!"-JACQUES BRIDAINE. SOMEWHAT back from the village street Across its antique portico Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw An ancient timepiece says to all, "Forever-never! Never-forever!" Halfway up the stairs it stands, And points and beckons with its hands Like a monk, who, under his cloak, With sorrowful voice to all who pass,- Never-forever!" By day its voice is low and light; And seems to say, at each chamber-door,"Forever-never! Never-forever!" Through days of sorrow and of mirth, Of changeful time, unchanged it has stood, Never-forever!" In that mansion used to be His great fires up the chimney roared; But, like the skeleton at the feast, That warning timepiece never ceased, "Forever-never! Never-forever!" - There groups of merry children played, THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS. O precious hours! O golden prime, Those hours the ancient timepiece told,- Never-forever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The dead lay in his shroud of snow; And in the hush that followed the prayer, Was heard the old clock on the stair, "Forever-never! Never-forever!" All are scattered now and fled, Never-forever!" Never here, forever there, Where all parting, pain, and care, Sayeth this incessantly, "Forever-never! Never-forever!" THE ARROW AND THE SONG. I SHOT an arrow into the air, I breathed a song into the air, Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroke; |