FROM "SAINT PAUL"

Lo, as some bard on isles of the Aegean Lovely and eager when the earth was young,

Burning to hurl his heart into a paean, Praise of the hero from whose loins he

sprung;

He, I suppose, with such a care to carry,

Wander'd disconsolate and waited long, Smiting his breast, wherein the notes would tarry,

Chiding the slumber of the seed of song:

Then in the sudden glory of a minute

Airy and excellent the proem came, Rending his bosom, for a god was in it, Waking the seed, for it had burst in flame.

So even I athirst for his inspiring,

I who have talk'd with Him forget again, Yes, many days with sobs and with desiring Offer to God a patience and a pain ;

Then through the mid complaint of my confession,

Then through the pang and passion of my prayer,

Leaps with a start the shock of his possession,

Thrills me and touches, and the Lord is there.

Lo, if some pen should write upon your rafter

MENE and MENE in the folds of flame, Think you could any memories thereafter Wholly retrace the couplet as it came ?

Lo, if some strange intelligible thunder

Sang to the earth the secret of a star, Scarce could ye catch, for terror and for wonder,

Shreds of the story that was peal'd so far.

Scarcely I catch the words of his revealing,

Hardly I hear Him, dimly understand, Only the Power that is within me pealing Lives on my lips and beckons to my hand.

Whoso has felt the Spirit of the Highest Cannot confound nor doubt Him nor

A LAST APPEAL

O SOMEWHERE, somewhere, God un. known, Exist and be !

I am dying; I am all alone;

I must have thee !

God! God! my sense, my soul, my all,
Dies in the cry:-

Saw'st thou the faint star flame and fall?
Ah! it was I.

IMMORTALITY

So when the old delight is born anew,
And God re-animates the early bliss,
Seems it not all as one first trembling kiss
Ere soul knew soul with whom she has to
do?

O nights how desolate, O days how few,
O death in life, if life be this, be this!
O weigh'd alone as one shall win or miss
The faint eternity which shines therethro'!
Lo, all that age is as a speck of sand
Lost on the long beach where the tides are
free,

And no man metes it in his hollow hand
Nor cares to ponder it, how small it be ;
At ebb it lies forgotten on the land
And at full tide forgotten in the sea.

A LETTER FROM NEWPORT φαίη κ ̓ ἀθανάτους καὶ ἀγήρως ἔμμεναι αἰεὶ ὃς τότ ̓ ἐπαντιάσεἰ ὅτ ̓ Ἰάονες ἄθροοι εἶεν. THE crimson leafage fires the lawn, The pil'd hydrangeas blazing glow; How blue the vault of breezy dawn

Illumes the Atlantic's crested snow! 'Twixt sea and sands how fair to ride

Through whispering airs a starlit way, And watch those flashing towers divide Heaven's darkness from the darkling bay!

Ah, friend, how vain their pedant's part, Their hurrying toils how idly spent, How have they wrong'd the gentler heart

Which thrills the awakening continent, Who have not learnt on this bright shore What sweetness issues from the strong, Where flowerless forest, cataract-roar,

Have found a blossom and a song!

Ah, what imperial force of fate

Links our one race in high emprize! Nor aught henceforth can separate

Those glories mingling as they rise; For one in heart, as one in speech,

At last have Child and Mother grown, Fair Figures! honoring each in each

A beauty kindred with her own.

Through English eyes more calmly soft Looks from gray deeps the appealing charm;

Reddens on English cheeks more oft

The rose of innocent alarm ; Our old-world heart more gravely feels, Has learnt more force, more self-con

trol;

For us through sterner music peals

The full accord of soul and soul.

But ah, the life, the smile untaught,
The floating presence feathery-fair !
The eyes and aspect that have caught
The brilliance of Columbian air!
No oriole through the forest flits

More sheeny-plum'd, more gay and free; On no nymph's marble forehead sits Proudlier a glad virginity.

So once the Egyptian, gravely bold,
Wander'd the Ionian folk among.
Heard from their high Letôon roll'd
That song the Delian maidens sung;
Danced in his eyes the dazzling gold,

For with his voice the tears had sprung,"They die not, these! they wax not old, They are ever-living, ever-young!"

Spread then, great land! thine arms afar, Thy golden harvest westward roll; Banner with banner, star with star,

Ally the tropics and the pole; There glows no gem than these more bright From ice to fire, from sea to sea ;, Blossoms no fairer flower to light Through all thine endless empery.

RENUNCIANTS

SEEMS not our breathing light? Sound not our voices free? Bid to Life's festal bright

No gladder guests there be.

Ah stranger, lay aside

Cold prudence! I divine The secret yon would hide, And you conjecture mine.

Nay, nay, I wrong thee with rough words; still be

Serene, victorious, inaccessible;
Still smile but speak not; lightest irony
Lurk ever 'neath thy eyelids' shadow; stil!
O'ertop our knowledge; Sphinx of Italy,
Allure us and reject us at thy will

TWO INFINITIES

A LONELY way, and as I went my eyes Could not unfasten from the Spring's sweet things,

Lush-sprouted grass, and all that climbs and clings

In loose, deep hedges, where the primrose lies

In her own fairness, buried blooms surprise The plunderer bee and stop his murmurings,

And the glad flutter of a finch's wings Outstartle small blue-speckled butterflies. Blissfully did one speedwell plot beguile My whole heart long; I lov'd each separate flower,

Kneeling. I look'd up suddenly-Dear God!

There stretch'd the shining plain for many

a mile,

The mountains rose with what invincible power!

And how the sky was fathomless and broad!

And yet I dream'd of a fair land
Where you and I were met at last,
And face to face, and hand in hand,
Smil'd at the sorrow overpast.
The eastern sky was touch'd with fire,
In the dim woodlands cooed the dove,
Earth waited, tense with strong desire,
For day your coming, O my love!
The breeze awoke to breathe your name,
And through the leafy maze I came
With feet that could not turn aside,
With eyes that would not be denied
My lips, my heart a rosy flame,
Because you kiss'd me ere I died.
Death could but part us for a while;
Beyond the boundary of years
We met again-oh, do not smile
That tender smile, more sad than tears!

Forget my vision sweet and vain,
Your faith is mine- your faith is best;
Let others count the joys they gain,
I am a thousand times more blest.
They can but give a scanty dole
Out of a life made safe in heaven,
While I am sovereign o'er the whole,
I can give all- and all is given !
Faith such as ours defies the grave,
Nor needs a dream of bliss above-
Shall not this moment make me brave?
O aloe-flower of perfect love!

A MAY SONG

A LITTLE while my love and I,

What though the end of all be come, The latest hour, the latest breath, This is life's triumph, and its sum, The aloe-flower of love and death!

And yet your kisses wake a life
That throbs in anguish through my heart,
Leads up to wage despairing strife,
And shudders, loathing to depart.
Can such desire be born in vain,
Crush'd by inevitable doom?
While you let live can Love be slain?
Can Love lie dead within my tomb?
And when you die - that hopeless day
When darkness comes and utmost need,
And I am dead and cold, you say,
Will Death have power to hold his
prey?

Shall I not know? Shall I not heed?
When your last sun, with waning light,
Below the sad horizon dips,

Shall I not rush from out the night
To die once more upon your lips?

Ah, the black moment comes ! Draw
nigh,
Stoop down, O Love, and hold me fast.
O empty earth! O empty sky!
There is no answer, though I die
Breathing my soul out in the cry,
Is it the first kiss- or the last ?

Before the mowing of the hay, Twin'd daisy-chains and cowslip-balls, And caroll'd glees and madrigals,

Before the hay, beneath the may, My love (who lov'd me then) and I.

For long years now my love and I

Tread sever'd paths to varied ends; We sometimes meet, and sometimes say The trivial things of every day,

And meet as comrades, meet as friends, My love (who lov'd me once) and I.

But never more my love and I

Will wander forth, as once, together,

Or sing the songs we us'd to sing
In spring-time, in the cloudless weather;
Some chord is mute that us'd to ring,

Some word forgot we us'd to say
Amongst the may, before the hay,
My love (who loves me not) and I

A FOREBODING

I Do not dread an alter'd heart,
Or that long line of land or sea
Should separate my love from me,

I dread that drifting slow apart-
All unresisted, unrestrain❜d-
Which comes to some when they have
gain'd

The dear endeavor of their soul.