A KISS.

I.

WEET mouth! Oh let me take

One draught from that delicious cup!
The hot Sahara-thirst to slake

That burns me up!

II.

Sweet breath! all flowers that are,

Within that darling frame must bloom;

My heart revives so at the rare

Divine perfume !

III.

Nay, 'tis a dear deceit,

A drunkard's cup that mouth of thine;
Sure poison-flowers are breathing, sweet,

That fragrance fine!

IV.

I drank the drink betrayed me
Into a madder, fiercer fever;

The scent of those love-blossoms made me
More faint than ever.

V.

Yet though quick death it were That rich heart-vintage I must drain, And quaff that hidden garden's air, Again-again!

ALFRED DOMETT.

THE MOUNTAIN FIR.

HEY sat beneath the mountain fir,
Beneath the evening sun;

With all his soul he looked at her-
And so was love begun.

The tit-mice blue in fluttering flocks
Caressed the fir-tree spray;
And far below, through rifted rocks,
The river went its way.

As stars in heavenly waters swim,

Her eyes of azure shone;

With all her soul she looked at him

And so was love led on.

The squirrel sported on the bough,
And chuckled in his play;

Above the distant mountain's brow
A golden glory lay.

The fir-tree breathed its balsam balm,
With heather scents united;

The happy skies were hushed in calm-
And so the troth was plighted.

EARL OF SOUTHESK.

THE LETTER.

@HERE is another sweet as my sweet,

Fine of the fine, and shy of the shy? Fine little hands, fine little feetDewy blue eye.

Shall I write to her? shall I go?

Ask her to marry me by and by?

Somebody said that she'd say No ;
Somebody knows that she'll say Ay!

Ay or no, if ask'd to her face?

Ay or no, from shy of the shy? Go, little letter, apace, apace,

Fly;

Fly to the light in the valley below-
Tell my wish to her dewy blue eye :
Somebody said that she'd say No;
Somebody knows that she'll say Ay!

ALFRED TENNYSON.