"The little Lady your Queen befriended?” Now up, now down, the world's one see-saw ! EARTH'S IMMORTALITIES. FAME. SEE, as the prettiest graves will do in time, LOVE. So, the year's done with! (Love me for ever!) SONG. I. NAY, but you, who do not love her, Is she not pure gold, my mistress? Holds earth aught-speak truth-above her? So fair, see, ere I let it fall! II. Because you spend your lives in praising; So, why not witness, calmly gazing, If earth holds aught-speak truth-above her? Above this tress, and this I touch But cannot praise, I love so much! THE BOY AND THE ANGEL. MORNING, evening, noon, and night, Then to his poor trade he turned, Hard he laboured, long and well; But ever, at each period, He stopped and sang, "Praise God." Then back again his curls he threw, Said Blaise, the listening monk, "Well done; "As well as if thy voice to-day "Were praising God, the Pope's great way. "This Easter Day, the Pope at Rome "Praises God from Peter's dome." Said Theocrite, "Would God that I 66 Might praise Him, that great way, and die!" Night passed, day shone, And Theocrite was gone. With God a day endures alway, God said in Heaven, "Nor day nor night 66 Then Gabriel, like a rainbow's birth, Entered in flesh the empty cell, Lived there, and played the craftsman well: And morning, evening, noon, and night, And from a boy to youth he grew: The man put off the stripling's hue : The man matured and fell away And ever o'er the trade he bent, (He did God's will; to him, all one If on the earth or in the sun.) God said, "A praise is in mine ear; "There is no doubt in it, no fear: "So sing old worlds, and so "New worlds that from my footstool go. "Clearer loves sound other ways: Then forth sprang Gabriel's wings, off fell 'Twas Easter Day: he flew to Rome, In the tiring-room close by With his holy vestments dight, And all his past career Came back upon him clear, Since when, a boy, he plied his trade, And in his cell, when death drew near, And rising from the sickness drear To the East with praise he turned, "I bore thee from thy craftman's cell, "Vainly I left my angel's-sphere, "Vain was thy dream of many a year. "Thy voice's praise seemed weak; it dropped"Creation's chorus stopped! "Go back and praise again. "The early way-while I remain. "With that weak voice of our disdain, "Back to the cell and poor employ : Theocrite grew old at home; A new Pope dwelt in Peter's dome. One vanished as the other died: They sought God side by side. MEETING AT NIGHT. I. The grey sea and the long black land; II. Then a mile of warm sea-scented beach; PARTING AT MORNING. ROUND the cape of a sudden came the sea, SAUL. SAID Abner, "At last thou art come "Ere I tell, ere thou speak,-- "Kiss my cheek, wish me well! " Then I wished it, And did kiss his cheek: And he, "Since the King, oh, my friend, "For thy countenance sent, Nor drunken nor eaten have we ; Nor, until from his tent Thou return with the joyful assurance The King liveth yet, Shall our lip with the honey be brightened, |