"The high masts flicker'd as they lay afloat;

The crowds, the temples, waver'd, and the shore; The bright death quiver'd at the victim's throat;

Touch'd; and I knew no more." Whereto the other with a downward brow: [plunging foam, "I would the white cold heavyWhirl'd by the wind, had roll'd me deep below,

Then when I left my home."

Her slow full words sank thro' the silence drear,

[ing sea; As thunder-drops fall on a sleepSudden I heard a voice that cried, "Come here,

That I may look on thee."

I turning saw, throned on a flowery rise,

One sitting on a crimson scarf unroll'd; [bold black eyes, A queen, with swarthy cheeks and Brow-bound with burning gold. She, flashing forth a haughty smile, began: [so I sway'd "I govern'd men by change, and All moods. 'Tis long since I have

seen a man.

Once, like the moon, I made "The ever-shifting currents of the blood [flow. According to my humor ebb and I have no men to govern in this wood: That makes my only woe.

"Nay-yet it chafes me that I could not bend [mine eye One will; nor tame and tutor with That dull cold-blooded Cæsar. Prythee, friend,

Where is Mark Antony?

The interval of sound.

"Would I had been some maiden

coarse and poor ! [light! O me, that I should ever see the Those dragon eyes of anger'd Eleanor Do hunt me, day and night."

She ceased in tears, fallen from hope [tamely died!

and trust:

To whom the Egyptian: "O, you You should have clung to Fulvia's waist, and thrust

The dagger thro' her side."

With that sharp sound the white dawn's creeping beams, [mystery Stol'n to my brain, dissolved the Of folded sleep. The captain of my dreams

Ruled in the eastern sky.

Morn broaden'd on the borders of the dark, [last trance Ere I saw her, who clasp'd in her Her murder'd father's head, or Joan of Arc,

A light of ancient France;

Or her, who knew that Love can vanquish Death, [her king, Who kneeling, with one arm about Drew forth the poison with her balmy breath,

Sweet as new buds in Spring.

2.

You love, remaining peacefully,

To hear the murmur of the strife, But enter not the toil of life. Your spirit is the calmed sea,

Laid by the tumult of the fight. You are the evening star, alway

Remaining betwixt dark and bright:

Lull'd echoes of laborious day

Come to you, gleams of mellow light

Float by you on the verge of night.

3.

What can it matter, Margaret,

What songs below the waning stars The lion-heart, Plantagenet,

Sang looking thro' his prison bars? Exquisite Margaret, who can tell The last wild thought of Chatelet, Just ere the fallen axe did part The burning brain from the true heart, [well? Even in her sight he loved so

4.

A fairy shield your Genius made

And gave you on your natal day. Your sorrow, only sorrow's shade, Keeps real sorrow far away. You move not in such solitudes, You are not less divine, But more human in your moods,

Than your twin-sister, Adeline. Your hair is darker, and your eyes Touch'd with a somewhat darker hue,

And less aërially blue

But ever trembling thro' the dew Of dainty-woful sympathies.

5.

O sweet pale Margaret,
O rare pale Margaret,

Come down, come down, and hear me speak:

Tie up the ringlets on you cheek:

The sun is just about to set. The arching limes are tall and shady, And faint, rainy lights are seen, Moving in the leafy beech.

Rise from the feast of sorrow, lady,

Where all day long you sit between Joy and woe, and whisper each. Or only look across the lawn,

Look out below your bower-eaves, Look down,and let your blue eyes dawn Upon me thro' the jasmine-leaves.

THE BLACKBIRD.

O BLACKBIRD! sing me something well. While all the neighbors shoot thee round, [ground, I keep smooth plats of fruitful Where thou may'st warble, eat, and dwell.

The espaliers and the standards all Are thine; the range of lawn and park:

The unnetted black-hearts ripen dark,
All thine, against the garden wall.
Yet, tho' I spared thee all the Spring,
Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
To fret the Summer jenneting.
With that gold dagger of thy bill

A golden bill! the silver tongue,
Cold February loved, is dry:
Plenty corrupts the melody
That made thee famous once, when
young:

And in the sultry garden-squares,

Now thy flute-notes are changed to

coarse,

I hear thee not at all, or hoarse As when a hawker hawks his wares. Take warning! he that will not sing

While yon sun prospers in the blue, Shall sing for want, ere leaves are

new,

Caught in the frozen palms of Spring.

THE DEATH OF THE OLD YEAR.

FULL knee-deep lies the winter snow, And the winter winds are wearily sigh

ing:

Toll ye the church-bell sad and slow,
And tread softly and speak low,
For the old year lies a-dying.

Old year you must not die;
You came to us so readily,
You lived with us so steadily,
Old year, you shall not die.

He lieth still he doth not move :
He will not see the dawn of day.
He hath no other life above.

He gave me a friend, and a true truelove

And the New-year will take 'em away.
Old year you must not go;
So long as you have been with us,
Such joy as you have seen with us,
Old year, you shall not go.

Ie froth'd his bumpers to the brim;
A jollier year we shall not see.
But tho' his eyes are waxing dim,
And tho' his foes speak ill of him,
He was a friend to me.

Old year, you shall not die;
We did so laugh and cry with you,
I've half a mind to die with you,
Old year,
if you must die.

He was full of joke and jest,
But all his merry quips are o'er.
To see him die across the waste
His son and heir doth ride post-haste,
But he'll be dead before.

Every one for his own.
The night is starry and cold, my
friend,
[my friend,
And the New-year blithe and bold,
Comes up to take his own.

How hard he breathes! over the snow
I heard just now the crowing cock.
The shadows flicker to and fro :
The cricket chirps: the light burns low:
'Tis nearly twelve o'clock.

Shake hands, before you die.
Old year, we'll dearly rue for you:
What is it we can do for you?
Speak out before you die.
His face is growing sharp and thin.
Alack! our friend is gone,
Close up his eyes: tie up his chin:
Step from the corpse, and let him in
That standeth there alone,

And waiteth at the door.