FROM ATALANTA IN CALYDON."

BEFORE the beginning of years

There came to the making of man Time, with a gift of tears;

Grief, with a glass that ran; Pleasure, with pain for leaven;

Summer, with flowers that fell; Remembrance fallen from heaven, And madness risen from hell; Strength without hands to smite; Love that endures for a breath; Night, the shadow of light,

And life, the shadow of death.

And the high gods took in hand
Fire, and the falling of tears,
And a measure of sliding sand
From under the feet of the years;
And froth and drift of the sea;

And dust of the laboring earth;
And bodies of things to be

In the houses of death and of birth; And wrought with weeping and laughter, And fashioned with loathing and love, With life before and after

And death beneath and above,

For a day and a night and a morrow,

That his strength might endure for a span With travail and heavy sorrow, The holy spirit of man.

From the winds of the north and the south
They gathered as unto strife;
They breathed upon his mouth,
They filled his body with life;
Eyesight and speech they wrought
For the veils of the soul therein,

A time for labor and thought,
A time to serve and to sin;

THE WELL OF ST. JOHN.

"THERE is plenty of room for two in here, Within the steep tunnel of old gray stone; And the well is so dark, and the spring is so

clear,

It is quite unsafe to go down alone."

"It is perfectly safe depend upon it,

For a girl who can count the steps like me, And if ever I saw dear mother's bonnet,

It is there on the hill by the old ash tree." "There is nobody but Rees Morgan's cow Watching the dusk on the milk-white sea. 'Tis the time and place for a life-long vow, Such as I owe you, and you owe me."

"Oh, Willie, how can I, in this dark well?
I shall drop the brown pitcher, if you let go:
The long roof is murmuring like a sea-shell,
And the shadows are shuddering to and fro."

"'Tis the sound of the ebb in Newton Bay, Quickens the spring as the tide grows less, Even as true love flows alway

Counter the flood of the world's success."

"There is no other way for love to flow;
Whenever it springs in a woman's breast,
To the home of its own heart it must go,
And run contrary to all the rest."

"Then fill the sweet cup of your hand, my love,
And pledge me your maiden faith thereon,
By the touch of the lettered stone above,
And the holy water of St. John."

'Oh what shall I say? My heart drops low;
My fingers are cold, and my hand too flat.

Is love to be measured hy handful so?

And you know that I love you-without that."

They stooped in the gleam of the faint light over The print of themselves on the limpid gloom; And she lifted her full palm toward her lover, With her lips prepared for the words of doom. But the warm heart rose, and the cold hand fell, And the pledge of her faith sprang, sweet and clear.

From a holier source than the old saint's well, From the never-ebbing tide of love—a tear. RICHARD DODDRIDGE BLACKMORE,

THE PLAGUES OF IRELAND.

OH, Ireland, my country, the hour

Of thy pride and thy splendor hath passed, And the chain that was spurned in thy moments of power

Hangs heavy around thee at last.

There are marks in the fate of each clime,

There are times in the fortunes of men,

But the changes of realms and the chances of time Shall never restore thee again.

Thou art chained to the wheel of the foe

By links which a world cannot sever, With thy tyrant through storm and through calm

thou shalt go,

And thy sentence is bondage forever. Thou art doomed for the thankless to toil,

Thou art left for the proud to disdain,

And the blood of thy sons and the wealth of thy soil Shall be lavished and lavished in vain.

Thy riches with taunts shall be taken,
Thy valor with coldness be paid,

And of millions who see thee thus sunk and forsaken

Not one shall stand forth in thine aid.

In the nations thy place is left void,

Thou art lost in the list of the free;

Even realms by the plague and the earthquake destroyed

May revive, but no hope is for thee.

THOMAS FURLONG.

CHANGE.

On! wild birds sing to me a strain,
The old familiar blessèd lays;
Oh! fill my heart with joy and pain,
And so bring back the vanished days.

While here I lie upon the grass,

And the old trees their shadows fling; And clouds across the blue sky pass,

Oh! wild birds sing, oh! wild birds sing.

Bring back, bring back, the vanished years,
Oh! bring me back one vanished face

I lost in that thick mist of tears;
Fill once again her vacant place.

Once more, once more, oh! bring once more,
To my cold heart the swell and glow,
That dear voice brought in days of yore;
Sing low, sweet birds, sing soft and low!

Bring back, bring back, the olden time,
When we were children, she and I,
And life was one long rush of rhyme;
Ah! sing dear birds, sing clear and high!

Time creeps or flies, and all things change;
Who keepeth aught of all he had?
The dear old dreams grow cold and strange;
Sing low, sweet birds, sing low and sad!

And who hath done what once he planned,
When first he gaily hoisted sail,
And shaped his course for his dreamland?
Ah! wild birds droop your wings and wail!

All-all that course is scattered o'er

With cold, dead hopes that shrouded lie, Whose wailing ghosts for evermore

Haunt our low steps, and moan and cry!

With outstretched hands, in dark and gloom,
We grope our way we know not where;
Uncertain shades beside a tomb;
Oh, birds your wailing seems despair!
The shadows fall and day is past,

The cold white moon gleams o'er the hill; The last faint whispering notes-the last! Tremble and cease, and all is still.

PHILIP GARI H.

THE FUTURE IS BETTER THAN THE PAST.

NOT where long passed ages sleep,

Seek we Eden's golden trees,

In the future folded deep,

Are its mystic harmonies.

All before us lies the way,

Give the past unto the wind;

All before us is the day,

Night and darkness are behind.

Eden with its angels bold,

Love and flowers and coolest sea,

Is not ancient story told,

But a glowing prophecy.

In the spirits' perfect air,

In the passions tame and kind,

Innocence from selfish care,

The real Eden we shall find.

It is coming, it shall come,

To the patient and the striving, To the quiet heart at home,

Thinking wise and faithful living. When all error is worked out,

From the heart and from the life; When the sensuous is laid low, Through the Spirit's holy strife; When the soul to sin hath died, True and beautiful and sound;

Then all earth is sanctified,

Up springs paradise around.
Then shall come the Eden days,
Guardian watch from seraph eyes;
Angels on the slanting rays,

Voices from the opening skies.

From this spirit land, afar,

All disturbing force shall flee; Stir nor toil nor hope shall mar Its immortal unity.

ELIZA THAYER CLAPP.

FLOWERS.

How bright and beauteous are the flowers, Those undertones of love,

Which God has given to us below,

From Eden bowers above.

They bloom upon the hillside,
And in the lovely glen,
They brighten children's faces,

And cheer the hearts of men.
Their fragrance fills the evening air,
Floats on the evening breeze,
And like an angel whisper,

Speaks to the hearts of ease.
The flowers of spring are beautiful,
But summer blooms more rare,
The autumn and the winter flowers,
May teach us-ne'er despair.

The springtime of our life would seem
A landscape, covered o'er
With flowers in bright and rich array,

Exhaustless in their store;

While summer flowers of life are filled
With dews distilled from care,
We find no rose without a thorn,
How e'er so bright and fair.

The "sear and yellow leaf" of age
Bears on its fragile stem,

The flowers of hope and love and faith,

A glorious diadem.

These flowers we find forever,

Beyond the "shining shore," Within the Amaranthine bowers, They bloom to pale no more.

MRS. ELIZABETH MAY BADGER.

GOING OUT AND COMING IN.

GOING out to fame and triumph,

Going out to love and light; Coming in to pain and sorrow,

Coming in to gloom and night.
Going out with joy and gladness,
Coming in with woe and sin;
Ceaseless streams of restless pilgrims
Going out and coming in!

Through the portals of the homestead,
From beneath the blooming vine;
To the trumpet tones of glory,
Where the bays and laurels twine;
From the loving home-caresses
To the chill voice of the world-
Going out with gallant canvass

To the summer breeze unfurled.
Through the gateway, down the footpath,
Through the lilacs by the way;
Through the clover by the meadow,
Where the gentle home-lights stray;
To the wide world of ambition,
Up the toilsome hill of fame,
Winning oft a mighty triumph,

Winning oft a noble name.

Coming back all worn and weary,

Weary with the world's cold breath;
Coming to the dear old homestead,
Coming in to age and death.
Weary of its empty flattery,
Weary of its ceaseless din,
Weary of its heartless sneering,
Coming from the bleak world in.
Going out with hopes of glory,

Coming in with sorrows dark;
Going out with sails all flying,

Coming in with mastless barque. Restless stream of pilgrims, striving Wreaths of fame and love to win, From the doorways of the homestead Going out and coming in!

MRS. MOLLIE E. MOORE DAVIS.

PRIZE QUOTATIONS.

Cash prizes to the amount of Three Hundred Dollars will be awarded by the Publisher to the persons who will name the author of the greatest number of the Prize Quotations Rules for Competitors may be found on another page.

135.

A creature not too bright nor good
For human nature's daily food,

For transient sorrows, simple wiles,

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

136.

Hands of invisible spirits touch the strings Of that mysterious instrument, the soul, And play the prelude of our fate

137.

How beautiful is gentleness, whose face

Like April sunshine, or the summer rain, Swells everywhere the buds of generous thought?

So easy, and so sweet it is; its grace

Smoothes out so soon the tangled knots of pain.

Can ye not learn it will ye not be taught?

138.

With deep affection and recollection,

I often think of those Shandon Bells,
Whose sounds, so wild, would
In the days of childhood,

Fling round my cradle their magic spells. 139.

The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas.

140.

Stop, Mortal! Here thy brother lies,
The Poet of the Poor.

His books were rivers, woods, and skies,
The meadow, and the moor;

His teachers were the torn hearts' wail,
The tyrant and the slave,

The street, the factory, the jail,

The palace-and the grave!
141.

Star after star from heaven's high arch shall rush,
Suns sink on suns, and systems, systems crush,
Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,
And death, and night, and chaos mingle all!
Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,
Immortal nature lifts her changeful form,
Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,
And soars and shines, another and the same.

Careless of the voice of the morning.
Exult then, O sun, in the strength of thy
youth!

153. When the humid shadows hover over all the starry spheres,

And the melancholy darkness gently weeps in rainy tears,

What a bliss to press the pillow of a cottage-chamber bed,

And lie listening to the patter of the soft rain overhead.

154.

We come! we come! and ye feel our might,
As we're hastening on in our boundless flight;
And over the mountains, and over the deep,
Our broad invisible pinions sweep
Like the spirit of liberty, wild and free,
And ye look on our works, and own 'tis we;
Ye call us the winds; but can ye tell
Wither we go, or where we dwell?

155.

Far in a wild, unknown to public view,
From Youth to age a reverend hermit grew;
The moss his bed, the cave his humble cell,
His food the fruits, his drink the crystal well;
Remote from men, with God he passed his days,
Prayer all his business, all his pleasure praise.
156.

Beside each fearful soul there walks

The dim, gaunt phantom of uncertainty,
Bidding it look before, where none may see,
And all must go.

157.

We knew and did not know,

We saw and did not see,

The nets that long ago

Fate wove for you and me;
The cruel nets that keep

The birds that sob and moan,
And I would we were asleep,
Forgotten and alone!
158.

I praise thee for the power to love the Right,
Though Wrong awhile show fairer to the sight;
The power to sin, the dreadful power to choose
The evil portion and the good refuse;
And last, when all the power of ill is spent,
The power to seek Thy face and to repent.

159.

How calm and quiet a delight

Is it, alone,

To read, and meditate, and write

By none offended, and offending none.

To walk, ride, sit, or sleep at one's own ease, And, pleasing a man's self, none other to dis. please.

160.

My mind to me a kingdom is,

Such present joys therein I find,

That it excels all other bliss

That earth affords or grows by kind; Though much I want which most would have,

Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

161.

Happy the man, of mortals happiest he Whose quiet mind from vain desires is free; Whom neither hopes deceive nor fears

torment,

But lives at peace, within himself content; In thought and act accountable to none But to himself and to the gods alone.

162.

I kiss not where I wish to kill;

I feign not love where most I hate;

I break no sleep to win my will;

I wait not at the mighty's gate.

I scorn no poor, I fear no rich;

I feel no want, nor have too much.

163.

I lead my life indifferently;

I mean nothing but honesty;

And though folks judge full diversely,

I am as I am, and so will I die.

164.

A little garden grateful to the eye,
And a cool rivulet run murmuring by,
On whose delicious banks a stately row
Of shady limes or sycamores should grow,
At th' end of which, a silent study placed,
Should be with all the noblest authors
graced.

165.

Let a coach be called,

And let the man who calleth be the caller;

And in his calling let him nothing call,

But coach! coach! coach! O for a coach, ye gods!

166.

'T is over-the lights are all dying,
The coaches all driving away;
And many a fair one is sighing,
And many a false one is gay;
And beauty counts over her numbers

Of conquests, as homewards she drivesAnd some are gone home to their slumbers, And some are gone home to their wives.