Still I hear it "Twixt my spirit And the earth-noise intervene"Sweetest eyes were ever seen!" But the priest waits for the praying, And the choir are on their knees; And the soul should pass away in Strains more solemn-pure than these. 66 Miserere"

For the weary! Now no longer for Catrine, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!" Keep this riband,* take and keep it, I have loosed it from my hair, Feeling, while you over weep it, Not alone in your despairSince with saintly Watch, unfaintly Out of heaven, shall o'er you lean "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!" But-but, now-yet unremovéd

Up to heaven-they glisten fast-
You may cast away, belovéd,
In the future all the past!

That old phrase
May be praise

For some fairer bosom-queen,
"Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"
Eyes of mine! what are ye doing?
Faithless, faithless-praised amiss,
If one tear be of your showing,
Shed for any hope of His !

Death hath boldness
In its coldness,
If one false tear should demean
"Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"
I will look out to his future-

I will bless it till it shine! Should he ever be a suitor Unto other eyes than mine, Sunshine gild them, Angels shield them, Whatsoever eyes terrene Then be sweetest ever seen!

DESPAIR.

I TELL you, hopeless grief is passionless;
That only men incredulous of despair,
Half-taught in anguish, through the midnight air
Beat upward to God's throne in loud access
Of shrieking and reproach. Full desertness
In hearts, as countries, lieth silent, bare
Under the blenching, vertical eye-glare

Of the free charter'd heavens. Be still! express
Grief for thy dead in silence like to death!
Most like a monumental statue set
In everlasting watch and moveless wo,
Till itself crumble to the dust beneath.
Touch it, spectator! Are its eyelids wet?
If it could weep, it could arise and go!

*She left him the riband from her hair.

THE DEPARTED.

WHEN Some belovéd voice, which was to you
Both sound and sweetness, faileth suddenly,
And silence against which you dare not cry
Aches round you with an anguish dreadly new-
What hope, what help? What music will undo
That silence to your sense? Not friendship's sigh,
Not reason's labour'd proof, not melody
Of viols, nor the dancers footing through;
Not songs of poets, nor of nightingales,
Whose hearts leap upward from the cypress trees
To Venus' star! nor yet the spheric laws
Self-chanted-nor the angels' sweet "all hails,"
Met in the smile of God! Nay, none of these!
Speak, Christ at His right hand, and fill this pause.

WHAT ARE WE SET ON EARTH FOR?

WHAT are we set on earth for? Say, to toil!
Nor seek to leave thy tending of the vines
For all the heat o' the sun, till it declines,
And death's mild curfew shall from work assoil.
God did anoint thee with his odorous oil
To wrestle, not to reign-and he assigns
All thy tears over like pure crystallines
Unto thy fellows, working the same soil,
To wear for amulets. So others shall
Take patience, labour, to their heart and hand,
From thy hand, and thy heart, and thy brave cheer,
And God's grace fructify through thee to all!
The least flower with a brimming cup may stand
And share its dew-drop with another near.

THE SPINNING-WHEEL. THE woman singeth at her spinning-wheel A pleasant song, ballad or barcarolle, She thinketh of her song, upon the whole, Far more than of her flax; and yet the reel Is full, and artfully her fingers feel, With quick adjustment, provident control, The lines, too subtly twisted to unroll, Out to the perfect thread. I hence appeal To the dear Christian church-that we may do Our Father's business in these temples mirk, So swift and steadfast, so intent and strongWhile so, apart from toil, our souls pursue Some high, calm, spheric tune-proving our work The better for the sweetness of our song.

THE SOUL'S EXPRESSION.

WITH stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
Both dream, and thought, and feeling interwound,
And inly answering all the senses round
With octaves of a mystic depth and height,
Which step out grandly to the infinite
From the dark edges of the sensual ground!
This song of soul I struggle to outbear
Through portals of the sense, sublime and whole,
And utter all myself into the air-
But if I did it-as the thunder-roll
Breaks its own cloud-my flesh would perish there,
Before that dread apocalypse of soul.

Was it a song, or was it a moan?

"Oh, ho! Oh, ho!
Above, below!

Lightly and brightly they glide and go;
The hungry and keen on the top are leaping,
The lazy and fat in the depths are sleeping;
Fishing is fine when the pool is muddy,
Broiling is rich when the coals are ruddy!"
In a monstrous fright, by the murky light,
He look'd to the left and he look'd to the right,
And what was the vision close before him,
That flung such a sudden stupor o'er him?
"Twas a sight to make the hair uprise,
And the life-blood colder run:

The startled priest struck both his thighs, And the abbey clock struck one!

All alone, by the side of the pool,
A tall man sat on a three-legg'd stool,
Kicking his heels on the dewy sod,
And putting in order his reel and rod;
Red were the rags his shoulders wore,
And a high red cap on his head he bore;
His arms and his legs were long and bare;
And two or three locks of long red hair
Were tossing about his scraggy neck,
Like a tatter'd flag o'er a splitting wreck.
It might be time, or it might be trouble,
Had bent that stout back nearly double-
Sunk in their deep and hollow sockets
That blazing couple of Congreve rockets,
And shrunk and shrivell'd that tawny skin,
Till it hardly cover'd the bones within.
The line the abbot saw him throw

Had been fashion'd and form'd long ages ago,
And the hands that work'd his foreign vest
Long ages ago had gone to their rest:
You would have sworn, as you look'd on them,
He had fish'd in the flood with Ham and Shem!

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he took forth a bait from his iron box.
Minnow or gentle, worm or fly-

It seem'd not such to the abbot's eye:
Gaily it glitter'd with jewel and gem,
And its shape was the shape of a diadem.

It was fasten'd a gleaming hook about, By a chain within and a chain without; The fisherman gave it a kick and a spin, And the water fizz'd as it tumbled in!

From the bowels of the earth,
Strange and varied sounds had birth-
Now the battle's bursting peal,
Neigh of steed, and clang of steel;
Now an old man's hollow groan
Echo'd from the dungeon stone;
Now the weak and wailing cry
Of a stripling's agony!

Cold by this was the midnight air; But the abbot's blood ran colder,

When he saw a gasping knight lie there,
With a gash beneath his clotted hair,
And a hump upon his shoulder.
And the loyal Churchman strove in vain
To mutter a Pater Noster;

For he who writhed in mortal pain

Was camp'd that night on Bosworth plainThe cruel Duke of Glou'ster!

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he took forth a bait from his iron box.
It was a haunch of princely size,
Filling with fragrance earth and skies.
The corpulent abbot knew full well
The swelling form, and the steaming smell;
Never a monk that wore a hood
Could better have guess'd the very wood
Where the noble hart had stood at bay,
Weary and wounded, at close of day.

Sounded then the noisy glee
Of a revelling company-
Sprightly story, wicked jest,
Rated servant, greeted guest,
Flow of wine, and flight of cork,
Stroke of knife, and thrust of fork:
But, where'er the board was spread,
Grace, I ween, was never said!

Pulling and tugging the fisherman sat;
And the priest was ready to vomit,
When he hauled out a gentleman, fine and fat,
With a belly as big as a brimming vat,

And a nose as red as a comet.
"A capital stew," the fisherman said,

"With cinnamon and sherry!" And the abbot turned away his head, For his brother was lying before him dead,

The mayor of St. Edmond's Bury!

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he took forth a bait from his iron box:
It was a bundle of beautiful things—

A peacock's tail, and a butterfly's wings,
A scarlet slipper, an auburn curl,

A mantle of silk, and a bracelet of pearl,
And a packet of letters, from whose sweet fold
Such a stream of delicate odours roll'd,
That the abbot fell on his face, and fainted,
And deem'd his spirit was half-way sainted.

Sounds seem'd dropping from the skies, Stifled whispers, smother'd sighs,

And the breath of vernal gales, And the voice of nightingales: But the nightingales were mute, Envious, when an unseen lute Shaped the music of its chords Into passion's thrilling words: "Smile, lady, smile!-I will not set Upon my brow the coronet, Till thou wilt gather roses white To wear around its gems of light. Smile, lady, smile!-I will not see Rivers and Hastings bend the knee, Till those bewitching lips of thine Will bid me rise in bliss from mine. Smile, lady, smile!-for who would win A loveless throne through guilt and sin? Or who would reign o'er vale and hill, If woman's heart were rebel still ?"

One jerk, and there a lady lay,
A lady wondrous fair;

But the rose of her lip had faded away,

And her cheek was as white and as cold as clay,

And torn was her raven hair.

"Ah, ha!" said the fisher, in merry guise,

66

Her gallant was hook'd before;"

And the abbot heaved some piteous sighs, For oft he had bless'd those deep blue eyes, The eyes of Mistress Shore!

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks,
As he took forth a bait from his iron box.
Many the cunning sportsman tried,
Many he flung with a frown aside;
A minstrel's harp, and a miser's chest,
A hermit's cowl, and a baron's crest,
Jewels of lustre, robes of price,
Tomes of heresy, loaded dice,
And golden cups of the brightest wine
That ever was press'd from the Burgundy vine;
There was a perfume of sulphur and nitre,
As he came at last to a bishop's mitre !
From top to toe the abbot shook,
As the fisherman armed his golden hook;
And awfully were his features wrought
By some dark dream or waken'd thought.
Look how the fearful felon gazes

On the scaffold his country's vengeance raises,
When the lips are crack'd and the jaws are dry
With the thirst which only in death shall die:
Mark the mariner's phrensied frown
As the swaling wherry settles down,
When peril has numb'd the sense and will,
Though the hand and the foot may struggle still:
Wilder far was the abbot's glance,

Deeper far was the abbot's trance:
Fix'd as a monument, still as air,

He bent no knee, and he breathed no prayer;
But he sign'd-he knew not why or how-
The sign of the Cross on his clammy brow.

There was turning of keys, and creaking of locks, As he stalk'd away with his iron box.

66

Oh, ho! Oh, ho!

The cock doth crow;

It is time for the fisher to rise and go.

Fair luck to the abbot, fair luck to the shrine !
He hath gnaw'd in twain my choicest line;
Let him swim to the north, let him swim to the
south,

The abbot will carry my hook in his mouth !”

The abbot had preach'd for many years,
With as clear articulation

As ever was heard in the House of Peers
Against emancipation;

His words had made battalions quake,
Had roused the zeal of martyrs;
He kept the court an hour awake,

And the king himself three quarters:
But ever, from that hour, 'tis said,

He stammer'd and he stutter'd, As if an axe went through his head With every word he utter'd.

He stutter'd o'er blessing, he stutter'd o'er ban,
He stutter'd drunk or dry;

And none but he and the fisherman
Could tell the reason why!

THE VICAR.

SOME years ago, ere Time and Taste Had turn'd our parish topsy-turvy, When Darnel Park was Darnel Waste,

And roads as little known as scurvy. The man who lost his way between

St. Mary's Hill and Sandy Thicket, Was always shown across the green, And guided to the parson's wicket. Back flew the bolt of lisson lath;

Fair Margaret in her tidy kirtle, Led the lorn traveller up the path,

Through clean-clipt rows of box and myrtle: And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray,

Upon the parlour steps collected, Wagg'd all their tails and seem'd to say, "Our master knows you; you're expected !"

Up rose the Reverend Dr. Brown,

Up rose the Doctor's "winsome marrow;" The lady laid her knitting down,

Her husband clasp'd his ponderous Barrow; Whate'er the stranger's caste or creed.

Pundit or papist, saint or sinner, He found a stable for his steed,

And welcome for himself, and dinner.

If, when he reach'd his journey's end,

And warm'd himself in court or college,

He had not gain'd an honest friend,

And twenty curious scraps of knowledge;— If he departed as he came,

With no new light on love or liquor,Good sooth, the traveller was to blame,

And not the vicarage, or the vicar.

His talk was like a stream which runs

With rapid change from rocks to roses:

It slipp'd from politics to puns:

It pass'd from Mahomet to Moses:

He always had a tale for me

Of Julius Cæsar or of Venus: From him I learn'd the rule of three,

Cat's cradle, leap-frog, and Quæ Genus; I used to singe his powder'd wig,

To steal the staff he put such trust in; And make the puppy dance a jig

When he began to quote Augustin. Alack the change! in vain I look

For haunts in which my boyhood trifled; The level lawn, the trickling brook,

The trees I climbed, the beds I rifled: The church is larger than before;

You reach it by a carriage entry; It holds three hundred people more: And pews are fitted up for gentry.

Sit in the vicar's seat: you'll hear

The doctrine of a gentle Johnian, Whose hand is white, whose voice is clear, Whose tone is very Ciceronian. Where is the old man laid?-look down, And construe on the slab before you, HIC JACET GULIELMUS BROWN, VIR NULLA NON DONANDUS LAURA.

SCHOOL AND SCHOOL-FELLOWS.

TWELVE years ago I made a mock Of filthy trades and traffics:

I wonder'd what they meant by stock; I wrote delightful sapphics:

I knew the streets of Rome and Troy,
I supp'd with fates and furies;
Twelve years ago I was a boy,
A happy boy, at Drury's.

Twelve years ago!-how many a thought
Of faded paints and pleasures

Those whisper'd syllables have brought
From memory's hoarded treasures!
The fields, the forms, the beasts, the books,
The glories and disgraces,

The voices of dear friends, the looks
Of old familiar faces.

Where are my friends ?—I am alone,
No playmate shares my beaker-
Some lie beneath the church-yard stone,
And some before the speaker;
And some compose a tragedy,

And some compose a rondo; And some draw sword for liberty,

And some draw pleas for John Doe. Tom Mill was used to blacken eyes, Without the fear of sessions; Charles Medler loath'd false quantities,

As much as false professions; Now Mill keeps order in the land, A magistrate pedantic;

And Medler's feet repose unscann'd, Beneath the wide Atlantic.

While Nick, whose oaths made such a din, Does Dr. Martext's duty;

And Mullion, with that monstrous chin, Is married to a beauty;

And Darrel studies, week by week,

His Mant and not his Manton; And Ball, who was but poor at Greek, Is very rich at Canton.

And I am eight-and-twenty now

The world's cold chain has bound me;
And darker shades are on my brow,
And sadder scenes around me:
In parliament I fill my seat,

With many other noodles;
And lay my head in Germyn-street,
And sip my hock at Doodle's.