Looks thro' in his sad decline,
And a rose-bush leans upon,
Thou that faintly smilest still,
As a Naiad in a well,

Looking at the set of day,
Of a phantom two hours old
Of a maiden passed away,
Ere the placid lips be cold?
Wherefore those faint smiles of thine,
Spiritual Adeline?

3.

What hope or fear or joy is thine?
Who talketh with thee, Adeline?

For sure thou art not all alone:
Do beating hearts of salient springs
Keep measure with thine own?

Hast thou heard the butterflies,
What they say betwixt their wings?
Or in stillest evenings

With what voice the violet woos
To his heart the silver dews?

Or when little airs arise,
How the merry bluebell rings
To the mosses underneath?

Hast thou looked upon the breath

Of the lilies at sunrise?

Wherefore that faint smile of thine,

Shadowy, dreamy Adeline?

4.

Some honey-converse feeds thy mind, Some spirit of a crimson rose

In love with thee forgets to close His curtains, wasting odorous sighs All night long on darkness blind. What aileth thee? whom waitest thou With thy soften'd, shadow'd brow,

And those dew-lit eyes of thine,
Thou faint smiler, Adeline?

5.

Lovest thou the doleful wind

When thou gazest at the skies? Doth the low-tongued Orient Wander from the side of the morn, Dripping with Sabæan spice

On thy pillow, lowly bent

With melodious airs lovelorn, Breathing Light against thy face, While his locks a-drooping twined Round thy neck in subtle ring Make a carcanet of rays,

And ye talk together still,

In the language wherewith Spring Letters cowslips on the hill? Hence that look and smile of thine,

Spiritual Adeline.

ALFRED (LORD) TENNYSON.

ADELLE.

THOUGH the hopes I have left be not many,

I have one which is second to none,

A hope that is dearer than any,

And it is tho' this all may be ill or be wellThat perhaps in the fairer Hereafter, Adelle, You and I will be one.

The streams which so tenderly blended
To their ocean divided may run ;

But perhaps, when their course is all ended,
Perhaps tho' this all may be ill or be well-
Perhaps in the vaster Hereafter, Adelle,
The two may be one.

The days of affection have faded,

The nights of our visions are gone ;

And we we shall pass e'en as they did;
But perhaps tho' this all may be ill or be well-
Perhaps in the mighty Hereafter, Adelle,
You and I shall be one.

GEORGE FREDERICK CAMERON.

"To Adelle."

ADRIANA.

ARTEVELDE.

Oh, she is fair!

As fair as Heaven to look upon! as fair As ever vision of the Virgin blest That weary pilgrim, resting by the fount Beneath the palm and dreaming of the tune Of flowing waters, duped his soul withal. It was permitted me in my pilgrimage To rest beside the fount beneath the tree, Beholding there no vision, but a maid Whose form was light and graceful as the palm, Whose heart was pure and jocund as the fount, And spread a freshness and a verdure round.

From "Philip Van Artevelde."

SIR HENRY TAYLOR.

AGATHA.

WERE her face as dusk as twilight,

When the soft September eves

Darken slowly in the shadow

Till the daybeam is no more,
I would make her blaze with jewels,
As the night, when it receives
One by one the starry splendors,
Sprinkling all the heavens o'er :

Diamonds from her ebon tresses
Should outflash their living light;
On her fingers, rubies, sapphires,
Gems of loveliest hue should gleam;
Oh, but I would make her glorious
As the star-encinctured night!
Oh, but I would make her lovelier
Than the poet's fondest dream!
But her brow is fair as morning
When no mists its beauty shroud;
And her shining auburn ringlets
Like a sunlit torrent fall

Down the dainty neck whose whiteness,
Gleaming through a golden cloud,
Seems a snow-wreath in the splendor
That the day flings over all!
Oh, her eyes were made to worship,
With their depths of heavenly blue!
Oh, her mouth was made for kisses,
With its dewy-luscious lips!
And the heaven of her caresses,
Warm and passionate and true,
Fills me with delirious rapture,
Thrilling to my finger-tips.

Were her name a mark for slander,
Hissing out its venomed lies,
Till the world, with face averted,

Smote her with its cruel scorn,