An alabaster wall, erewhile

Much redder than the rose !-
Falls like a sleep on souls forspent
Majestic Night's abandonment;
Wakes like a waking life afar
Hung o'er the sea one eastern star.

O Nature's glory, Nature's youth!
Perfected sempiternal whole!
And is the World's in very truth
An impercipient soul?

Or doth that Spirit, past our ken,
Live a profounder life than men,
Awaits our passing days, and thus
In secret places calls to us?

O fear not thou, whate'er befall

Thy transient individual breath,Behold, thou knowest not at all

What kind of thing is Death;
And here indeed might Death be fair,
If Death be dying into air,-

If souls evanished mix with thee,
Illumined heaven, eternal sea.

SIMMENTHAL

Far off the old snows ever new
With silver edges cleft the blue
Aloft, alone, divine;

The sunny meadows silent slept,
Silence the sombre armies kept,
The vanguard of the pine.

In that thin air the birds are still,
No ringdove murmurs on the hill
Nor mating cushat calls;
But gay cicalas singing sprang,
And waters from the forest sang
The song of waterfalls.

O Fate! a few enchanted hours
Beneath the firs, among the flowers,
High on the lawn we lay,

Then turned again, contented well,
While bright about us flamed and fell
The rapture of the day.

And softly with a guileless awe
Beyond the purple lake she saw

The embattled summits glow;

She saw the glories melt in one,
The round moon rise, while yet the sun
Was rosy on the snow.

Then like a newly-singing bird
The child's soul in her bosom stirred;
I know not what she sung :-
Because the soft wind caught her hair,
Because the golden moon was fair,
Because her heart was young.

I would her sweet soul ever may
Look thus from those glad eyes and grey,
Unfearing, undefiled:

I love her; when her face I see,

Her simple presence wakes in me
The imperishable child.

X

ROBERT BRIDGES

Born 1844

ELEGY

ON A LADY, WHOM Grief for THE DEATH of her BETROTHED KILLED

Assemble, all ye maidens, at the door,

And all ye loves assemble; far and wide Proclaim the bridal, that proclaimed before Has been deferred to this late eventide: For on this night the bride, The days of her betrothal over, Leaves the parental hearth for evermore; To night the bride goes forth to meet her lover.

Reach down the wedding vesture, that has lain Yet all unvisited, the silken gown :

Bring out the bracelets, and the golden chain Her dearer friends provided: sere and brown Bring out the festal crown,

And set it on her forehead lightly:

Though it be withered, twine no wreath again; This only is the crown she can wear rightly.

Cloke her in ermine, for the night is cold,
And wrap her warmly, for the night is long,
In pious hands the flaming torches hold,
While her attendants, chosen from among
Her faithful virgin throng,

May lay her in her cedar litter,

Decking her coverlet with sprigs of gold, Roses, and lilies white that best befit her.

Sound flutes and tabors, that the bridal be
Not without music, nor with these alone;
But let the viol lead the melody,

With lesser intervals, and plaintive moan
Of sinking semitone;

And, all in choir, the virgin voices

Rest not from singing in skilled harmony The song that aye the bridegroom's ear rejoices,

Let the priests go before, arrayed in white,

And let the dark stoled minstrels follow slow, Next they that bear her, honoured on this night, And then the maidens, in a double row,

Each singing soft and low,

And each on high a torch upstaying: