Music-friends so true and tried-
Whispered love by warm fireside-
Mirth at all times all together-
Make sweet May of Winter weather!

ALFRED DOMETT.

MY STAR.

LL that I know

A

Of a certain star

Is, it can throw

(Like the angled spar)

Now a dart of red,

Now a dart of blue;

Till my friends have said

They would fain see, too,

My star that dartles the red and the blue!

Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled:

They must solace themselves with the Saturn

above it.

What matter to me if their star is a world?

Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.

ROBERT BROWNING.

WOULD thou might'st not vex me with thine

eyes,

Thou fair Ideal Beauty, nor would'st shame
All lower thoughts and visions as they rise,
As in mid-noon a flame.

For now thy presence leaves no prospect fair,
Nor joy in act, nor charm in any maid,
Nor end to be desired, for which men dare,
Thou making me afraid.

Because life seems through thee a thing too great

To spend on these, which else might grow to thee; So that fast bound, I idly hesitate :

I prithee set me free ;

Or, hold me, if thou wilt, but come not near,
Let me pursue thee still in ghostly grace;
Far off let me pursue thee, for I fear

To faint before thy face.

LEWIS MORRIS.

THE UNREALIZED IDEAL.

Y only love is always near,-
In country or in town

I see her twinkling feet, I hear
The whisper of her gown.

She foots it ever fair and young,

Her locks are tied in haste,
And one is o'er her shoulder flung,
And hangs below her waist.

She ran before me in the meads;
And down this world-worn track
She leads me on; but while she leads
She never gazes back.

And yet her voice is in my dreams,
To witch me more and more;
That wooing voice! Ah me, it seems
Less near me than of yore.

Lightly I sped when hope was high,
And youth beguiled the chase,-
I follow, follow still; but I

Shall never see her face.

FREDERICK LOCKER.