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From thy secure and sheltering

branch

The wild bird pours her glad and fearless lay,

That, with the sunbeams, falls upon the vale,

Adding fresh brightness to the smile of day,

'Neath those broad boughs the youth has told love's tale;

And thou hast seen his hardy features blanch,

Heard his snared heart beat like a prisoned bird,

Fluttering with fear, before the fowler laid;

While his bold figure shook at every word

The strong man trembling at a timid maid!

And thou hast smiled upon their children's play;

Seen them grow old, and gray, and

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How canst thou call my modest love impure,

Being thyself the holy source of all?

Can ugly darkness from the fair sun fall?

Or nature's compact be so insecure, That saucy weeds may sprout up and endure

Where gentle flowers were sown?
The brooks that crawl,
With lazy whispers, through the
lilies tall,

Or rattle o'er the pebbles, will allure

With no feigned sweetness, if their fount be sweet.

So thou, the sun whence all my light doth flow

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And all things seem a show and mockery

Life, and life's actions, noise and vanity;

I ask my mournful heart if it can tell If all be truth which I protest to thee:

And my heart answers, solemnly, ""Tis well."

I HAVE been mounted on life's topmost wave,

Until my forehead kissed the daz

zling cloud;

But, ah! my treacherous heart doth ever fail

To ratify the sentence of my mind; For when conviction strikes me to the core,

I swear I love thee fondlier than before;

And were I now all free and unconfined,

Loose as the action of the shoreless wind,

My slavish heart would sigh for bonds once more.

I have been dashed beneath the AH! let me live on memories of

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old,

The precious relics I have set aside From life's poor venture; things

that yet abide

My ill-paid labor, shining, like pure gold,

Amid the dross of cheated hopes whose hold

Dropped at the touch of action.
Let me glide

Down the smooth past, review that day of pride

When each to each our mutual passion told

When love grew frenzy in thy blazing eye,

Fear shone heroic, caution quailed before

My hot, resistless kisses - when we bore

Time, conscience, destiny, down, down for aye,

Beneath victorious love, and thou didst cry,

"Strike, God! life's cup is running o'er and o'er."

DIRGE FOR A SOLDier.

CLOSE his eyes; his work is done!
What to him is friend or foeman,
Rise of moon, or set of sun,
Hand of man, or kiss of woman?
Lay him low, lay him low,
In the clover or the snow!
What cares he? he cannot know:
Lay him low!

As man may, he fought his fight,
Proved his truth by his endeavor;
Let him sleep in solemn night,
Sleep forever, and forever.

Lay him low, lay him low,
In the clover or the snow!

What cares he? he cannot know:
Lay him low!

Fold him in his country's stars, Roll the drum and fire the volley!

What to him are all our wars,

What but death-bemocking folly ?

Lay him low, lay him low,
In the clover or the snow!
What cares he? he cannot know:
Lay him low!

Leave him to God's watching eye, Trust him to the hand that made him.

Mortal love weeps idly by:

God alone has power to aid him.
Lay him low, lay him low,
In the clover or the snow!
What cares he ? he cannot know:
Lay him low!

HORATIUS BONAR.

A LITTLE WHILE.

BEYOND the smiling and the weeping I shall be soon;

Beyond the waking and the sleeping,
Beyond the sowing and the reaping,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the blooming and the fading
I shall be soon;
Beyond the shining and the shading,
Beyond the hoping and the dreading,
I shall be soon,

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the rising and the setting
I shall be soon.

Beyond the calming and the fretting,
Beyond remembering and forgetting,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the gathering and the strowing
I shall be soon;
Beyond the ebbing and the flowing,
Beyond the coming and the going,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the parting and the meeting
I shall be soon;
Beyond the farewell and the greeting,
Beyond this pulse's fever-beating,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

Beyond the frost-chain and the fever
I shall be soon;
Beyond the rock-waste and the river,
Beyond the ever and the never,
I shall be soon.

Love, rest, and home!
Sweet hope!

Lord, tarry not, but come.

THE INNER CALM.

CALM me, my God, and keep me calm,
While these hot breezes blow;
Be like the night-dew's cooling balm
Upon earth's fevered brow.

Calm me, my God, and keep me calm,
Soft resting on thy breast;
Soothe me with holy hymn and psalm
And bid my spirit rest.

Calm me, my God, and keep me Calm in the sufferance of wrong,

calm,

Let thine outstretched wing

Be like the shade of Elim's palm

Beside her desert spring.

Like Him who bore my shame,

Calm mid the threatening, taunting

throng.

Who hate thy holy name;

Yes, keep me calm, though loud and Calm when the great world's news

rude.

The sounds my ear that greet, Calm in the closet's solitude,

Calm in the bustling street;

Calm in the hour of buoyant health,
Calm in my hour of pain,
Calm in my poverty or wealth,
Calm in my loss or gain;

with power

My listening spirit stir;
Let not the tidings of the hour
E'er find too fond an ear;

Calm as the ray of sun or star
Which storms assail in vain,
Moving unruffled through earth's war,
The eternal calm to gain.

HELEN BARRON

URVASI.

'Tis a story told by Kalidasa,Hindoo poet-in melodious rhyme, How with train of maidens, young Urvasi

Came to keep great Indra's festal time.

'T was her part in worshipful confession

Of the god-name on that sacred day, Walking flower-crowned in the long procession,

"I love Puru-shotta-ma" to say.

Pure as snow on Himalayan ranges, Heaven-descended, soon to heaven

withdrawn, Fairer than the moon-flower of the Ganges,

Was Urvasi, Daughter of the Dawn.

But it happened that the gentle maiden

Loved one Puru-avas, - fateful name!

"I

BOSTWICK.

love" then she stopped, and people wondered;

"I love"- she must guard her Then from sweetest lips that ever secret well; blundered,

"I love Puru-avas," trembling fell.

Ah, what terror seized on poor Urvasi!

Misty grew the violets of her eyes, And her form bent like a broken daisy While around her rose the mocking

cries.

But great Indra said, "The maid shall marry

Him whose image in her faithful heart

She so near to that of God doth carry, Scarce her lips can keep their names apart."

Call it then not weakness or dissembling

If, in striving the high name to reach,

And her heart, with its sweet secret Through our voices runs the tender

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