Not SHAKSPEARE'S !

He hath left his curse

On him disturbs it: let it rest

The sacredest that ever Death

Laid in the Earth's dark breast!

Nor to himself did he belong,

Nor does his life belong to us : Enough, he was: give o'er the search If he were thus, or thus.

Before he came, his like was not,

Nor left he heirs to share his powers;
The Mighty Mother sent him here,
To be her Voice-and ours!

To be her Oracle to Man;

To be what Man may be to her;
Between the Maker and the made
The best interpreter.

The hearts of all men beat in his,
Alike in pleasure and in pain;
And he contained their myriad minds—
Mankind in heart and brain!

SHAKSPEARE!-What Shapes are conjured up
By that one word! They come and go,
More real, shadows though they be,
Than many a man we know.

HAMLET the Dane-unhappy Prince,
Who most enjoys when suffering most:

His soul is haunted by itself—

There needs no other Ghost!

The Thane whose murderous fancy sees
The dagger painted in the air;
The guilty King who stands appalled
When BANQUO fills his chair!

LEAR in the tempest, old and crazed

"Blow winds! Spit fire, singe my white head!" Or, sadder, watching for the breath Of dear CORDELIA-dead!

The much-abused, relentless Jew;

Grave PROSPERO, in his magic isle :
And she who captived ANTHONY-
The Serpent of old Nile!

Imperial Forms, heroic Souls,

Greek, Roman, -masters of the world :

:

Kings, queens, --the soldier, scholar, priest,—
The courtier, sleek and curled;

He knew and drew all ranks of men,
And did such life to them impart,
They grow not old—immortal types,
The lords of Life and Art!

Their sovereign he, as she was his,
The awful Mother of the race,
Who, hid from all her children's eyes,
Unveiled to him her face:

Spake to him till her speech was known,

Through him, till man had learned it--then

Enthroned him in her heavenly house,

April 23, 1864.

The most Supreme of Men!

Thomas Bailey Aldrich.

THE BALLAD OF BABIE BELL.

I.

HAVE you not heard the poets tell

How came the dainty BABIE BELL

Into this world of ours?

The gates of heaven were left ajar:
With folded hands and dreamy eyes,
Wandering out of Paradise,

She saw this planet, like a star,

Hung in the glistening depths of even

Its bridges, running to and fro,

O'er which the white-winged Angels go,
Bearing the holy Dead to heaven!

She touched a bridge of flowers-those feet,
So light they did not bend the bells
Of the celestial asphodels!

They fell like dew upon the flowers,
Then all the air grew strangely sweet!
And thus came dainty BABIE BELL

Into this world of ours,

II.

She came and brought delicious May.

The swallows built beneath the eaves:

Like sunlight in and out the leaves,
The robins went, the livelong day;
The lily swung its noiseless bell,

And o'er the porch the trembling vine
Seemed bursting with its veins of wine:

How sweetly, softly, twilight fell!
Oh, earth was full of singing-birds,

And opening spring-tide flowers,
When the dainty BABIE BELL

Came to this world of ours!

III.

O BABIE, dainty BABIE BELL,
How fair she grew from day to day!

What woman-nature filled her eyes,
What poetry within them lay!
Those deep and tender twilight eyes,

So full of meaning, pure and bright
As if she yet stood in the light
Of those oped gates of Paradise!
And so we loved her more and more:
Ah, never in our hearts before

Was love so lovely born:

We felt we had a link between
This real world and that unseen-

The land beyond the morn!
And for the love of those dear eyes,

For love of her whom God led forth (The mother's being ceased on earth When BABIE came from Paradise)— For love of Him who smote our lives, And woke the chords of joy and pain, We said, "Dear CHRIST !"— —our hearts bent down

Like violets after rain.

IV.

And now the orchards, which were white

And red with blossoms when she came,

Were rich in autumn's mellow prime:

The clustered apples burnt like flame, The soft-cheeked peaches blushed and fell, The ivory chestnut burst its shell,

The grapes hung purpling in the grange: And time wrought just as rich a change In little BABIE Bell.

Her lissome form more perfect grew,

And in her features we could trace,

In softened curves, her mother's face! Her angel-nature ripened too. We thought her lovely when she came, But she was holy, saintly now. 、、、 Around her pale angelic brow We e saw a slender ring of flame!

V.

GOD's hand had taken away the seal That held the portals of her speech; And oft she said a few strange words Whose meaning lay beyond our reach. She never was a child to us,

We never held her being's key: We could not teach her holy thingsShe was CHRIST's self in purity.

VI.

It came upon us by degrees:

We saw its shadow ere it fell,

The knowledge that our God had sent
His messenger for BABIE BELL.

We shuddered with unlanguaged pain,