NOTHING WILL DIE One after another the white clouds are fleeting; WHEN will the stream be aweary of Every heart this May morning in joy. flowing Under my eye? When will the wind be aweary of Never, O, never, nothing will die; Nothing will die; All things will change "T is the world's winter; Thro' and thro', Here and there, Till the air And the ground Shall be fill'd with life anew. LEONINE ELEGIACS LOW-FLOWING breezes are roaming the broad valley dimm'd in the gloaming; Thoro' the black-stemm'd pines only the far river shines. Barketh the shepherd-dog cheerly; the grasshopper carolleth clearly; Deeply the wood-dove coos; shrilly the owlet halloos; Winds creep; dews fall chilly: in her first sleep earth breathes stilly: Over the pools in the burn watergnats murmur and mourn. Sadly the far kine loweth; the glim mering water outfloweth ; Twin peaks shadow'd with pine slope to the dark hyaline. Low-throned Hesper is stayed between the two peaks; but the Naiad Throbbing in mild unrest holds him beneath in her breast. The ancient poetess singeth that Hesperus all things bringeth, Smoothing the wearied mind: bring me my love, Rosalind. Thou comest morning or even; she cometh not morning or even. False-eyed Hesper, unkind, where is my sweet Rosalind ? 40 50 Thrice happy state again to be 62 To the earth until the ice would melt Here, and I feel as thou hast felt ? What devil had the heart to scathe Flowers thou hadst rear'd-to brush the dew From thine own lily, when thy grave Was deep, my mother, in the clay? Myself? Is it thus? Myself? Had I So little love for thee? But why Prevail'd not thy pure prayers? Why pray To one who heeds not, who can save But will not? Great in faith, and strong 91 Against the grief of circumstance Wert thou, and yet unheard. What if Thou pleadest still, and seest me drive To reconcile me with thy God. still murmur 'Bring this lamb back into Thy fold, My Lord, if so it be Thy will.' Wouldst tell me I must brook the rod And chastisement of human pride; After a tempest rib and fret In summer heats, with placid lows He knows not, on his light there falls Of life and death, and things that seem, And things that be, and analyze Be unremember'd, and Thy love O weary life! O weary death! THE KRAKEN 190 BELOW the thunders of the upper deep, Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea, His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee About his shadowy sides; above him swell Huge sponges of millennial growth and height; And far away into the sickly light, From many a wondrous grot and se cret cell Unnumber'd and enormous polypi Winnow with giant arms the slumber. ing green. There hath he lain for ages, and will lie Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep, Until the latter fire shall heat the deep; Then once by man and angels to be seen, In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die. SONG THE winds, as at their hour of birth, Leaning upon the ridged sea, Breathed low around the rolling earth With mellow preludes, 'We are free.' The streams, through many a lilied row Down-carolling to the crisped sea, Low-tinkled with a bell-like flow Atween the blossoms, 'We are free.' LILIAN I AIRY, fairy Lilian, When I ask her if she love me She'll not tell me if she love me, Cruel little Lilian. II When my passion seeks Smiling, never speaks: Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks; |