Page images
PDF
EPUB

THE OPEN WINDOW.

THE old house by the lindens
Stood silent in the shade,

And on the gravelled pathway

The light and shadow played.

[blocks in formation]

The large Newfoundland house-dog
Was standing by the door;

He looked for his little playmates,
Who would return no more.

They walked not under the lindens, They played not in the hall;

But shadow, and silence, and sadness Were hanging over all.

The birds sang in the branches,
With sweet, familiar tone;

But the voices of the children

Will be heard in dreams alone!

And the boy that walked beside me, He could not understand

Why closer in mine, ah! closer,

I pressed his warm, soft hand!

KING WITLAF'S DRINKING-HORN.

WITLAF, a king of the Saxons,
Ere yet his last he breathed,

To the merry monks of Croyland

His drinking-horn bequeathed,

[ocr errors]

That, whenever they sat at their revels,
And drank from the golden bowl,

They might remember the donor,
And breathe a prayer for his soul.

So sat they once at Christmas,
And bade the goblet pass;

In their beards the red wine glistened
Like dew-drops in the grass.

They drank to the soul of Witlaf, They drank to Christ the Lord, And to each of the Twelve Apostles, Who had preached his holy word.

They drank to the Saints and Martyrs Of the dismal days of yore,

And as soon as the horn was empty They remembered one Saint more.

And the reader droned from the pulpit,
Like the murmur of many bees,
The legend of good Saint Guthlac,

And Saint Basil's homilies;

Till the great bells of the convent,

From their prison in the tower,

Guthlac and Bartholomæus,

Proclaimed the midnight hour.

And the Yule-log cracked in the chimney,
And the Abbot bowed his head,

And the flamelets flapped and flickered,
But the Abbot was stark and dead.

Yet still in his pallid fingers

He clutched the golden bowl,

In which, like a pearl dissolving,
Had sunk and dissolved his soul.

But not for this their revels

The jovial monks forbore,

For they cried, "Fill high the goblet! We must drink to one Saint more!"

« PreviousContinue »