When the young shoots grow lusty overhead, Here, where the spring sun smiles, the spring wind When budding violets close above thee spread Pass, O Belovéd, to dreams from slumber deep; Lie still and listen while thy sheltering tree THE ISLE OF VOICES. Fair blows the wind to-day, fresh along the valleys, Strange with the sounds and the scents of long ago; Sinks in the willow-grove, shifts, and sighs, and rallies Whence, Wind, and why, Wind, and whither do you go? Why, Wind, and whence, Wind? - Yet well and well I know it - Word from a lost world, a world across the sea; Sunk lies my ship, and the cruel sea rejoices, ALL-SOULS DAY. -- To-day is theirs the unforgotten dead Beats in the dissolute dust, the darkened bed, Relights the blown-out lamps o' the faded eyes, To-day the warm hands of the living reach To chafe the cold hands of the long-loved dead; Leans on a living breast, and feels the rain Of falling tears, and listens yet again To the dear voice the voice that never in vain Could sound the old behest. Each seeks his own to-day; - but, ah, not II enter not That sacred shrine beneath the solemn sky; I claim no commerce with the unforgot. My thoughts and prayers must be Even where mine own fixed lot hereafter lies, For whom no wandering breeze of memory sighs For ever and ever set They, the poor dead whom none remembereth. LES FOINS. They are mowing the meadows now, and the whispering, sighing Song of the scythe breathes sweet on mine idle ear, Songs of old Summers dead, and of this one dying, - Softly as swathes that sink while the long scythe, swinging, Passes and pauses and sweeps through the deep green grass: Strange how this song of the scythe sets the old days singing Echoes of seasons gone, and of these that pass, Fair ghost of Youth from your sea-fragrant Called by the voice of the scythe as it sighs Tell to me now as you toss me your phantom roses, those vagrant Springs? What that forgotten air when the heart went maying? What was the perfume blowing afar, anear? "The rose you saw not the tune that you could not hear." ATSON, THOMAS, an English poet; born at London, England, about 1557; died in 1592. His poems, pastoral and amatory, equaled in popularity those of his friends Spenser and Sidney. He translated Sophocles' Antigone into Latin (1581); and wrote: Ekatompathia; or, Passionate Century of Love (1582); Melibaus, Thoma Watsoni; sive, Ecloga in Obitum Domini Francisci Walsinghami Equitis Aurati (1590); The Tears of Fancie; or, Love Disdained (1591). SONNETS. When May is in his prime, and youthful Spring flowers, And time of year reviveth every thing, And lovely Nature smiles and nothing lowers; Then Philomela most doth strain her breast So she, for whom I wail both day and night, Time wasteth years, and months, and hours; τα ATSON, WILLIAM, an English poet; born at was educated privately. In 1876 he began his literary work by contributions of verse and prose to the Liverpool Argus. In 1880 appeared The Prince's Quest (verse), which attracted little attention. It was not until Wordsworth's Grave appeared in 1891 that he began to be looked upon as a poet of promise. He became famous by his Lachrymæ Musarum, an elegy on the death of Alfred Tennyson, and containing many touches of Milton's Lycidas. The poetry-reading world at once declared this poem the finest of the many tributes paid to the dead laureate, and a cash gift of $1,000 was tendered to the young author by the Gladstone Government. He had already been eagerly spoken of for the laureateship, and some of his friends, thinking the proffered bounty was intended to dismiss his claim to the successorship of Tennyson, advised against its acceptance. He received assurances, however, that nothing of the kind. was intended, and accepted the gift. The laureateship remained vacant until Salisbury resumed the government. In March, 1895, the Government granted him an annuity of $500. In 1896 appeared his sonnets on the Armenian massacres and the refusal of the nations to intervene, published under the title The Purple East. These made his name common property wherever the English tongue is spoken. His other works are Epigrams of Art, Life and Nature (1884); Ver Tenebrosum (a sonnet series attacking the English occupation of Egypt, 1885); The Eloping Angels; Poems; and Excursions in Criticism (1893); Odes |