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ft^vi

/4/1l

LAY^FROM^THE^WEST.

-4♦►-

STHLLA"-M. A. NICHOLL.

Then the Spirit reached her fingers,
Taper things of rosy snow,

Took my songs, and as she took them
" Tiny germs," she whispered "go!

Root among the coming hours.
Seeds are ye of many flowers,

Which from out the winds will grow !"

MANITOBA FRKE PRESS PRINT.

1884.

. 5. ^■

/' -V

• > , —

-C

.-> / —

■4

■ s

dedicated

WITH Mr( H GKATITrOK AND AFFECTION

MRS. T. iiPOTISWOOD ASH,

IHK MANOR HOUSE,

BELLAGHY, IRELAND.

IN THE NORTHWEST.

"I'll not forget Old Ireland, were it fifty times as fair."

In myriads o'er the prairie

Bright flowers bloom strangely fair,
There's beanty in the clear blue sky,

There's sweetness in the air ;
And loveliness, with lavish hand,

Decks dell and dingle gay ;
Yet still I love my native land —

The Green Isle, far away.

The poplar quivers in the breeze,

And by the blue lake's side,
The regal iris, tall and fair,

Blooms in her native pride ;
But I dream of the broad beeches'shade

In glens beside Lough Neagh
And my longing thoughts go back to thee,

O, Green 1 sle, far away !

Strange birds, in painted plumage gay,

In hundreds haunt the grove ;
O'er marsh and moor, the loon and heron,

The coot and plover rove ;
But I miss the lark's glad matin song.

And the thrush and blackbird's lay.
The summer songsters, sweet and wild.

In the Green isle, far away.

2 —

, is

Along the blue horiztn line

The "l)lutfs" rise 'gainst the sky,
But in dreams I see Old Erin's coast —

Her mountains wild and high :
Slieve Gallon, with his hoarv Tiead

Gold-crowned at clofle of day,
When sunset lightH the grand old hills

In the Green Isle, far away.

There's beauty in the woo<lland wilds

With their varied foliage fair.
But, cowering from the light of day,

The grim wolf shelters Uiere.
Ah I dear old woods, where I have roamed

At eve of summer day,
No hidden dangers haunt your glades.

In the Green Isle, far away.

The clear Assiniboine winds free

Through many a fertile vale ;
The antlered deer and graceful hind

Bound o'er the wooded dale ;
But I miss the quiet rural scenes —

The farm-house, thatched and grey,
That memory fondly ])ictures now

Of the Green Isle, far awav.

The Sabbath morn its holy calm

Breathes o'er the ])rairie lands,
And the answering heart hears Nature's psalm

And the wild woods clap their hands.
But I long to hear the church bell's sound

Tell to these wilds that day.
When thousands meet to praise and pray

In the Green Isle far away.

Here life lays iiold of brighter things

For the fair years to be,
But the deathless Past and all her dreams,

Old land, belong to thee !
The buried love, the buried hope

Of youth's glad summer day,
That bleni with unforgotten scenes

Of the Green Isle, for away.

ills
(Is

r
»

roamed
les.

'y»

lire's psalm
ids.
Isouiid

Ipray

jams,

— 3 —

And while we love this pleasant land

* plea;
[ fair,

And own it good and
Our hearts' tirst Iovh goes backward

And fondly lingers there —
Back to the dear home country,

Then forward to that day
When all shall meet together.

From the Green Isle pass'd away.

SONG.

• " In the Kloaining, Oh, inj' darling."

Oh! green-1) »somed Isle, as the summer day's gloaming.
Lies dreamy and dun on the prairie's wild breast

There my worn, wayward heart o'er the wild waves is
roaming
Far, far to tne scenes that are dearest and best.

As by bhiH' and by woodland, by swamp and by meadow,
The gloom gathers round in its dim, mystic pall.

Then my fancies come forth, spirit-children of shadow.
Slow gliding from haunts where the lone night-birds call .

When the wind, ardent lover, in songful caressing,
Speaks low to the grasses that bend to his breath,

And the dew woos the rose with the balm of its blessing
And steals it with love from the shadow of death.

Then I seek the wild glen, when the new moon is beaming
All wierdly and wan, through a cloud's fleecy haze,

TOl I stand, young and free, in the land of my dreaming.
Clasping hands with the phantoms of happier days.

And then, oh ! mavourneen, in grey distance flying
The j^resent, the real, grows dimmer, and dies,

I see but the moonbeams, but hear the winds sighii ^
And bask, fancy bound, in the light of your eyes.

%'»

My own ! though the years in the gloom of their sadness
Stand, frowning, 'tween me and the light of my star,

And memory can feel the wild might of loves madness.
Or acofl: as rude Time its first sweetness would mar.

— 4 —

A^ain, by the Iwnks wlien; Moyola is Howiiig

We .stray as the ir.uonheaiii« Hiiiile sweet thro iiL'h ili.
dell

Unheeded the moments, unmarked in their K'^'i^bS
Nor dreamed we of woe in the sound of '' farewell. "

Ik it lost — all the light of the fair morning vision ?

Is spirit to spiiit unanswering, cold?
No, it never shall die, while in memory's Elysian

It lingers in beauty and brightness untold.

Love is love, and though Fate-blasts our hope-vines mav
sever

From the stay which their tendrils in fondness entwine,
Yet the past of our joy we must cherish forever

And spirit meet spirit at memory's shrine.

A MEMOKy.

"Indulgent Memory wakes, and, \oi they live !"— Hodgkkh,

Deathless, while the years are flying,
And all lesser hopes are dying.
To my widowed neart near lying

By a life- time's love embalmed.
Is a memory, dear and tender,
And in dreams its bygone splendour
Sweetest, holiest, balm can render

To my grief, by Time uncalmed.

In life's morning, young and early
Glistening fair through dew-drops pearly.
Burst a bud that promised fairly

Through the length of future days.
Ah ! it charmed my passion'd dreaming.
Bathed in beauty's brightness, beaming
Fadeless still, and deathless seeming

In fond Hope's delusive haze.

And, as when in wild December,
June's calm twilights we remember.
So this dre&m in shadowy splendour

■k ?

:-viiies may

!srt «ntwiue,

UODOKKH.

— 6 —

Ever haunts my lonely way ;
And 1 H(*L' in fond delunion,
(rlowin} ^s in light Elysian,
'1 he entransinc, uld-tinie viniun

Doom'd HO early to decay.

Days when Hope, how false ! utill flaunted
Tlirough my dreamingn, love enchanted,
Framed by busy Fancy, haunted

By ^lad visionw of delight, —
Mrrns of light, and sunsets golden,
Dreams of tegends, grand and olden,
Hopes for future years, withholden

From our youthful, yearning sight.

Past and gone ! Ah ! vain my sighing, —
Hope's dead leaves are round me lying,
But their fragrances, undying,

Like a hallowed incense rise ;
And I feel, with joy unspoken,
Tliat the spirit love unbroken
Leaves this Memory for a token

Of it8 truth, that never dies.

In that land whose beauty vernal
Through the ages blooms eternal
Thou, in bliss undreamed, supernal

Baskest in the glory -light
Where celestial joys inspire
All heaven's vast, unnumbered choir
With s'veet songs that never tire,

Through the fadeless summer bright.

Here, how sad this dreary roaming.
Through the shadows of earth's gloaming,
Waiting for the Icnged-for coming

Of the lingering Morning Star ;
But swift time is onward fleeting —
Backward is the past retreating,
Nearer, nearer draws our meeting

In the future, dim and far.

— 6 —

AFTER LIFE'S FEVER.

I < I

Obiit June, 1882.

" And then, a flood of light, a seraph's hymn,

And God's own smile, forever, and forever."

Oh ! pale, calm face ; eyes by the Death-kiss sealed,
Cold hands, upon the silent bosom folden ;

Oh ! soul, set free — of all sin's sickness healed,
Basking in light, from mortal eyes withholden.

In codo quies.

Still heart, that ached and throbb'd with human passion,
Locks, white with snow of many a winter past.

Tired body, weary after earth's poor fashion,
Sleep calmly till the waking trumpet blast —

In coelo quies.

All over now — the heart-ache and the burning
Of thoughts, so trammelled by this " mortal coil ;"

The soul has cast behind its moans and yearning.
The hands are resting from the long life's toil, —

In C(jelo quies.

I, mournful gazer, watching by the portal
Whence thou, from death to life, hast entered in,

Would fain catch one stray gleam of light immortal,
To tell me, ever drowning earth's wild din,

In ccelo quies.

I might not hear ^he angel welcome ringing,

Nor see the pearly portals open wide.
Wherein the ransomed band, the new song singing,

In white robes wander by life's river side.

In coelo qiiies.

^^In cailo quiesy" while the storms are beating
Along earth's desert moorlands, wild and wide ;

While skies shall lower, and angry waves are meeting
Thy bark is moored — thou art beyond the tide,

in coelo quies.

'•'In coelo gMces"— Rest, pure, deep, eternal,
Peace, in a perfect, blissful, endless calm ;

rnin,

1 sealed,

ed,
)lden,
ccelo quies.

an passion,
past,

»
t—

coelo quies.

ing

al coil ;"
nine,
toil,—
ccelo quies.

red in,
umortal,

codU) quies.

l^ang,
ccdlo quies.

dde;
meeting
tide,
)oslo quies.

■hv.

— 7 —

Charmed hy the beatific joys supernal,
LullM by the melody of seraph's psalm,

In coelo quies.

Here, we but dream it all — the rest — the glory,
Here we but yearn for it in sob and pam ;

Till knees wax weary and till locks grow hoary.
Still " westward journeying," at length to gain,

In coelo quies.

But thmi mayest sleep ; thy toilsome warfare ended,
The long, rough life-path has been nobly trod,

And with our lost ones, thou sweet songs hast blended,
To hail them found, beside the throne of God \

In coelo quies.

LIGHT AT EVENTIDE.

Round us in the stillness spreading,

Comes the night.
Mortal ears can't hear the treading

Of her footsteps, soft and light.

Dusky veil that shades the valleys,

Bringing rest ;
Shadowy glooms in greenwood alleys.

Twilight dreamings, sweet and blest.

All the day-time cares are ended,

And instead.
Now by unseen bands attended.

Far, in fancy, we are led.

Misty forms of mystic seeming

Hover near ;
Memory's myriad tapers gleaming

Light old scenes and make them clear —

Morn's vain hopes, and noon's stern sorrows,

Tears and cares ;
Days of toiling, and to-morrow's

Bringing less of wheat than tares.

— 8 —

And the chequered, varied pages

Of life's book
Seem a sea whose calms and rages

Now the tired heart cannot brook.

Evening calm ! ah, beat and purest

Time of peace ;
Soothing balm, when hope is surest,

To bid all vain doubting cease.

Pointing on, when near the pleasant,

Rest awaits ;
When we leave this weary present

And have gained the pearly gates.

And as evening shadows, creeping,

Gather round
Dim eyes, worn so weak with weeping,

Learn to smile as peace is found.

In the hope so full of cheering

And delight —
Home, sweet home ! our rest we're neariiig !

Evening time shall bring us light.

Light of heaven I Earth's gloom adorning

With thy smile.
Earnest of the eternal morning

After this brief "little while."

CHRISTMAS EVE.

Ruddy bright the dying embers
In the glooming, glow and burn,

Scenes of olden -time Decembers,
Ashes now in Times' great urn,

That the heart so well remembers
At this haunted hour reburn : —

All the fairy scenes Elysian
Born again in recollection.
Seen with mirror-like reflection.

Throne upon the wondering vision,

— 9 —

11^ &

neariuf,' ! 1

ruing

Once again I hear the river

In the darkness rush and roar,
See the pine-bonghs wave and quiver,

Hear the oak trees, blasted, hoar,
Muttering, as their gaunt arms shiver,

" Come again, oh ! days of yore ! "
Come, oh times of hope and longing,
When the beauteous, pure ideal,

Seemed tangible and real —
"Love the light of Truth's belonging.

And the woodland walks, enchanted.

By the moonlight's mystic sheen.
Seen as near as wnen Hope flaunted

In the distance, dimly seen,
That the witched hour seems haunted

By the joys that once have been.
Dear old days ! they seem returning.
Though their radiance long has vanished.

Though their rays stern fate has banished,
Fancy still can see them burning.

See their magic, nameless graces.
Through the shadows flit and gleam.

See again beloved faces

Shine around as in a dream.

And the well-remembered places
Of the bygone, nearer seem,

Till all present melancholy,

Fades away, and sweet and tender.
Visions of life's spring-time splendour,

Gleam among the bay and holly.

Haik ! the Christmas bells are ringing
From the grey church-steeple near,

And the choir are sweetly singing,
" Nowel ! Hail Messiah here !

NoM^el ! for He cometh, bringing
Unto all mankind good cheer."

Through the night the music stealing
Briugeth sootning sweet and pleasant,
Sheds a peace upon the present,

Future days in light revealing.

— 10 —

AT ANCHOR. £ „

Still 3

— -A^ ^^

"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever.' JP^ •'

Hebrews xiii. 8. • 1 si

In life's young morning blue-eyed promise Bmiled

O'er a fair future of enchanting grace,
And sweet toned love the golden hours beguiled,

And Fortune's radiant smile illumed the place.

But change, dread vulture, swooped upon her prey.

And seized my treasures as Time's car sped on,
Then traitor love took wings, and fled away.

And long ere noon I wept a setting sun.

Thei; Phoenix-like, beside the smouldering pile,
Kind friendship rose /ith open, outstretcned hands.

But, ere I graspea them, death with icy smile
Had rudely snapp'd in twain the three-folc

fold bands.

E'en while I mourned, I heard a thrilling voice
That said in stirring accents, " Up ! arise !

Work, that in harvest time thou may est rejoice ! "
And Fame stood pointing to the brightening skies.

Then dreams, false phantoms, filled the gloaming air
And lured me, spell-bound, by a labyrinth maze.

But morning beams awakened new despair —
The meteor glories passed in mist and haze.

Through shadv groves I strayed, and on before

V/alked hign-browed Knowledge, calm-eyed and sevei i

Unwearied still, I trod his footprints o'er,
But fainting fell, the longed-ior prize an ear.

Hard-smitten then, I wept ; all woe — all gloom. !

The heart-void still unfilled, ached keen and sore,
When through the inky darkness shot a gleam

Of new-born glory, unrevealed before .

Dear Lord ! How frail these bauble-toys of Time
When Thy " forever " dawns upon the heart ;

Thy perfect fulness, Saviour, how divine.
E'en while w^e taste its blessedness in part !

— 11 —

forever.'

Jtill yesterday, to-day, while ages roll

In grand, p*^*jrnal vastuesy, still the same,
)h ! potent Healer ! every whit made whole,
I I sing glad Hallelujah to Thy name !

iled

ed,
ice.

prey.
3n,

d hand."*,

bands .

e!"
skies.

Mig air
laze.

THE OLD TRYSTING PLACE,

. and seveii

I
sore

lie

■'m

" Die erste Liebe ist die beste."

i'hrough the green boughs the golden sunshine falling
Glints on the glades and lonely woodland bowers ;

5ird answers bird, through the wide woodlands calling,
In the deep hush of the calm summer hours.

!'he hmpid river winding through the meadows.
Laughing and sparkling in the sunny noon,

["akes peaceful tones here, 'neath the beeches' shadows.
And sings sweet idylls in low, fitful tune.

Jongs of the olden days, of hojjes and pleasures.
Songs of the love of youth's glad morning times,

!'hat sigh around our path like dream-world treasures,
Soothing as music of the vesper chimes.

!'he rustic bridge, the leaves' soft shadows playing

Down in the water-depths, and from away
[Mong the blue hills, come mingled echoes straying,
"'M The pleasant sounds that fiU tne summer day.

I^aburnum's gold, and quivering beech-leaves blending,
M Sway, dancing in the breezes, to and fro ;
pVild hyacinths, their blue heads lowly bending,
f Listen the secrets of the winds to know.

|Dh ! quaint old try sting-place ! oh ! lights and shadows.
And sounds that haunt the dreams of Life's glad May !
reams withered like the May-flowers in the meadows
; Or roses of the Junes long passed away.

Here, oft in dreams, I see my own true maiden,

The pure flower-face, the rippling golden hair ;
jLh ! many years have roU'd past, sorro w-laden,
■* Sine© blue-eyed Edmee waited for me there !

— 12 —

Ah ! murmurinff brook, with waving willow fringes,
Ah ! woodland picture, all your clmrmed glow

Is touched and changed by Truth's own sober tinges,
Tints that youth's eager eyes see not, nor know.

Fraught with these gleams of old-time faith and feeling,
Fraught with the memory^ of " what might have been,"

A still, small voice says all is Go-^'s wise dealing.
Behind the clouds is brightness yet unseen.

Young love and hope in all their matchless glory,
Smile on our morning-time, then fade away ;

Teaching unwilling hearts the sad, true story.
No lasting joy is here, all knows decay.

" Die erste Liebe ist die beste," leaving
A holy radiance round the scenes we knew ;

A potent power to point lone spirits, grieving,
To deathless Love whose charms are ever new.

It ever shows, " in part," in sweet tuition.

What we shall know when we have gained the light,

When all our highest hopes fade in fruition.
Where the Eternal Summer beameth bright.

THY WORD IS A LIGHT UNTO MY FEET.

Oh ! Light of Lights ! dark, dark is earth's long way,
Cloud upon cloud looms o'er the path I stray ;
Far-off and dim the heavenly Land appears,
Through the thick mist of weak distrust — and fears .
Helpless, I seek Thy Word, and hear Thy voice,
That bids me always in the Lord rejoice ;
Pointing from doubts within, and this world's wile
To peace and victory, in "a little while."

Oh ! Saviour, Friend, how dark is life's rough path.

What gloom and sorrow haunts this Vale of Death ;

Subtle the way, beset with many a snare

And hidden evils lurking everywhere .

But in this Light that shows Thy love, I see,

This path Thou'st trod, and borne these griefs, for me,

" Fear not ! " I hear in tones of tenderest love
" 'Tis in thy weakness that my strength I prove.''

The world's temptations rage on life's wild sea,
Drifting the fragile bark I steer to Thee,
But safe I pass tne rocks and angry waves,
Helped by Thy mighty arm that shields and savas.
And still above the wind's and water's roar
A calm voice hails me from the distant shore, . .
" Cast all your care undoubtinglv on Me,
Fully and freely, for I care for triee."

When twilight shades fall round me, dim and grey,
All those I love the most are far away,
I look to Thee, and dry my wilful tears —
With love like Thine, I dread no lonely years.
If 'tis Thy will, let bitter partings come,
Sweet shall the meetings oe in yonder Home ;
While here I have Thy love that cannot die,
And could I feel alone when Thou art nigh ?

Weary with waiting for Thy promised rest.
Dismayed with douots, with sinfulness distressed ;
"Oh ! let Thy kingdom come ! "I pray ** that I
May join the glad new song they sii» on high ;"
Then thy seet words bring patience, "I prepare
For thee an heavenly mansion, bright and fair,
That where 1 am Thou mayest with Me abide,
And taste full joy for* ever by My side . "

I bless thee, Saviour, for this word of life.

This light to guide me safe through every strife,

This lantern o'er my pathway shining clear

To show the dangers, and the Helper near.

I love to see it beaming, day by day.

Thine own bright smile, that lights the darksome way ;

" Led by Thy counsel," oh ! what joy to be

" Received in glory," Lord, at last by Thee.

\p.

ill

— 141-
MEMORIES

"In der Wcit, weit,
Au8 der Einsamkeit,
Wollen sie Dich lockeii.'

-Faust.

When the glad, bright days of our youth's fresh prime,
Shall have pass'd, as a dream that at morning dies ;

When the long blank stretch of the coming time
Like a desolate desert before us lies,
Dreary and cheerless, 'neath sunless skies.

When young, sweet love, with her luring smile,
The mystic charm-light of halcyon hours.

Shall no more with her witch'ry our souls beguile,
As the leaves grow seer on Life's fading bowers,
And the blushes are pale on its withering flowers.

When the strains we loved in the days of yore

No more with their sweetness our neart's-chords thrill;

When Hope's roseate meteors glow no more.
Like the summer sunrise o'er vale and hill.
That our dreamings with radiance were wont to fill.

When these are gone, shall the lone heart know
No solace the solitude's gloom to cheer ?

Shall no stray -beams lighten the spirit's woe
As it moans "alone !" e'en when crowds are near ?
Must all be lost that was once so dear ?

Ah, no ! Though Time is a thief, I ween,
Stealing youth's best wealth as the swift years go,

Still the memories of pleasures which once have been —
The dreams of the beautiful " Long ago,"
Are our own to keep, and shall aye be so !

'*THE KING IS DEAD."

Hush ! There's a solemn pause,

And looks of fear !
You ask — Whence comes the cause ?

Grim Death is here !

^16 —

Oh ! well thou answerest, well —

'Tis fairly said ;
Our heai'ts thrill to the knell,

" The King i^^ dead!"

Dead ! And the bell swings, swings
On in its deep, sad tone ;

We own the King of Kings
Is King alone !

We ^rown our Kings, we place

Bay leaves on victors' brow,

But all our mortal race
Can boast is now.

The body lay in state.

All fair to mortal eye ;
The soul's eternal fate —

Oh ! Death, thy mystery !

TO " X. Y. Z.,"

On receiving a paper from him.

Old places have a charm for me

Tne new can ne'er attain ;
Old faces — how I long to see
Their kindly looks again !" — Anon,

" X. Y. Z.," your paper was

A welcome thing, indeed, to me ;

It brought the memories of old days,
Like fragrance wafted o'er the sea.

It spake about familiar nooks.

The dear old paths I know so well ;
I almost thought I heard the brooks.
Or roamed again my favourite dell.

The happy hours, the rustic glades.
The gloaming time, the twilight stroll.

Ah, me ! these April evening shades
With old-time dreams can haunt one's soul.

' ill

■■ ■!•

— 16 —

The heart feels youn^ again and free,
And no such word is known as tare ;

Sweet rays of light that used to be
Seem hovering in the twilight air !

The hedges and the fields of green,

The lanes, the flowers, the wild bird's trill,

The trees, seen down the water's sheen,
The cattle lowing o'er the hill !

Vour well-drawn school-life picture, too,
My school-time morn recalls again ;

'Tis like an old tune, sweet and true,
That mingles pleasing notes with pain.

The fields, the schools, the village way,
The (|uaint, old-fashioned, country rhynu;,

All come, like mystic glows that stray
Across the yellowing fields of Time.

The Enghsh lanes have lovely flowers.
And moss, and feins, and birds that sing,

But Erin — green Erin — still is ours.
And to her name our fond heartF^ cling.

Each land we visit claims some grace —
Some special charm it calls its own ;

Yet patriot souls must love the place

Which childhood's happy memories crown I

LOVE

When first from Eden's blissful bowers,
Man roamed o'er earth in exile driven,

Kind Heaven, to cheer his lonely hours,
A source of joy to him hath given.

'Tis Love, that lights our darkest days,
'Tis Love, that cheers our keenest woe,

'Tis Love, whose soul inspiring rays,
Gilds all our lives with heaven-lent glow.

— 17 —

Ambition leads us for a while

To follow many a meteor light —

Whose flickering beams our souls beguile,
And lure us on to hopeless night.

And Fame may sound her clarion voice —
Wealth bring his hoards from every clime,

But Age shall come, and earth's frail joys
Must own the sway of sovereign Time.

But Love, as flying years go past,

Shall glow with holier, tenderer beam,

And shine, our guiding star at last
Till our dull hearts shall catch a gleam.

And when our life on earth is o*er

And we from all our toil shall rest.
The beams of Love will light that shore
Where Love has ransomed all the Blest !

A BIRTHDAY ANNIVERSARY.

Lcs crown

" 'Tis sweet, when year by year we lose
Friends out of sight, in faith to muse
How grows in Paradist our store !"- Kbble.

His Birthday ! but to-night there is no gladness,
As in the bright old days forever flown ;

And in my heart one aching thought of sadness
Seems ever whispering, Alone ! Alone !

The darkness gathers round, and, wan and olden,
The worn day paler grows, and dies away,

And all life's light and orightness now seem folden
Beneath the twilight's dusky mantle gray.

The old church tower, amid the shadows looming,
Stands grim and sombre in the dying light;

The trees with leafless branches shiver, moaning
As the sad winds sigh softly through the night.

— . 18

Wierd looks tho ruine<l church, where ivy creeping
DeckH the old wallH fast mouldering in decay ;

And j)eaco reats o'er the graves in whose calm keeping',
In ([uiet safety, sleeps the treasured clay.

Here in this corner, where his grave is lying.

The fir trees throw deep shade, and soft and low,

When summer eve or winter day is dying,
Tlie winds seem ever sighing songs of woe !

Oh ! cherished spot ! beloved beyond all measure,
Your holy peace that brings a balm so blest !

When turning from the world, in grief or pleasure,
I seek your calm, and hunger for your rest !

How feeble, then, seem all the tieB that bouml me
To this world's ways, that held such charms for nw ;

And heaven-bo»'n dreams and holy thoughts sur-
round me
Until from earth's vain things my soul is free !

Then do I feci this wound of Mercy's giving

Draws all my hopes trom earth to nolier lovo :

An e'en while here, sin-stained and lonely living,
My heart is with my treasure fixed above !

Still, looking upward to the Heavenly Mansion,
Where he abides — where we shall meet him
there —

Where soul with soul shall blend in the expansion
Of that world's higher life, immortal, fair !

That land of beauty, where the Lamb in glory
Gathers His own to perfect bliss and peace ;

Where all the ransomed sing Redemption's story
In joys celestial that can never cease.

Thrice happy lot was thine,oh, blessed spirit !

So early called from this dark vale of woe —
From chequered scenes of warfare — to inherit

That perfect love that God's own favoured know.

Then could we wish thee back to dwell with mortals

- 19 —

And bear ihoma sturms that tosa TinieV troubled
Rea ?
No ! from that home ])eyond the pearly jjortals
Thou canst not come, but we will go to thee !

IN MEMORIAM

R. A. WILSON, Esq.,
Editor of the Belfast Morning News.

Fair vayes of Ulster ! in the noontide smiling.
Blue Northern mountains, frowning to the s

Rivers that flow along, with song beguiling
The summer day your beauties, too, must die !

sky

Know ye no requiem] Ah ! streamlets borrow
Your tones from tearful voices ! Mountains blue,

O'er vour high heads let heavy clouds of sorrow
Tell that ye mourn the death of Patriot true.

Erin ! green Erin ! let your great heart feel it !

Bid all your sons and daughters, fair and brave,
By dropjjing tears and mourning faces tell it,

As they place laurels on a new-made grave !

Lowly he lies to dav ? Death's deep, calm slumber
Has claimed anotner of our cherisned ones ;

As he, the talented, ranks with the number
Of Erin's lost, best-loved — her gifted sons !

"Barney Maglone " is dead ! Let the winds sighing
On their fleet wings, bear far the wail of woe

To every land. Let them in wild, sad crying
Tell out to all the sorrow that we know.

Our Poet, and not all Westminster's glory
Could ever give him half so loved a grave

As this green mound, with simple cross, whose story
Shall live 'mong annals of our gifted brave !

— 20

i\''

Methinks that far among old Ireland's mountains
I hear the breezes sing a sad dirge, low,

Wild, and yet soft, with tears from many fountains
And murmuring rivers wailing in their flow.

The grand old woods, with leafy branches waving,
Mmgle their many harps in one refrain,

Blent with the waves, whose foam our coast is laving,
Rolling afar, weeping aloud the strain —

Waters and wondrous deep,

Mountains and valleys ;
Woodlands and heathery steep.

Lone greenwood alleys,

Sound the long wail of woe,
Tell the news, sad and low,
Let all the wide world know

Of the loved, lost one !

Waves of deep, boundless sea,
Rolling for ever free.
Tell through the time to be

Of the bright, lost one!

Erin, whose bosom green,

His own, his loved shrine has been,

Feel the woe thou hast seen

For the true, lost one !

His land, in weal or woe,

In dark gloom or sunny glow.

Do all Ireland's great ones know

Such zeal as this lost one ?

Bright dreams ! ah, how fleeting

Was his life's fair story !
Swift, swift was the meeting

Of Death, with earth's glory !

Unrivalled in splendour

His sky was at morning,
Still brightening, its grandeur

His noonday adorning.

«.21 —

But a dark cloud rose glooming,
Ah, me ! 'twas Death's shadow !

It chilled the best blooming
Of hillside or meadow !

Oh, waters and wondrous deep,

Mountains and v^allej'S,
Woodlands and heathery steep.

Lone greenwood alleys —

Sound the weird wail of woe.
Tell the news sad and low,
Let all the wide world know

Of Erin's best lost one !

WELCOME TO SPRING.

Oh, Spring ! sweet Spring ! with your golden hours,
Thrice welcome back to our vales and bowers !
I have sighed for you through the Winter's gloom,
And counted the months, till again you come.

Then, welcome, sweetest ! I hail you here,

Fairest child of the smiling year !

I have watched for your advent with longing eyes,

As you lingered 'neath sunnier southern skies ;

I have wafted songs o'er the winds to thee —

The sighs of a lover's fond constancy.

Then, welcome, darling ! to glen and grove.
Child of gladness, and nope, and love !

I see your footprints along the woods,

And your magic touch on the opening buds,

Bursting to birth on hedge and tree,

In promise of vernal life to be.

Then, welcome. Spring ! to our land again,
Bringing beauty and life in your happy train !

I have marked where you paused by thi streamlet's side,
There smiled the primrose, in early pride.
All golden fair 'mid her leaves of green.

— 22 —

Dropped from your garland, oh, beauteous queen !

Then, welcome ! to brighten our long-left bowcis
Fair child of sunsliine, and joy, and flowers !

I have paused entranced in the earlv morn,
When the birds awoke as the day was born,
Pealing welcomes wild in their native glee,
And my heart went out in their songs to thee,

On the fresh winds borne o'er the hills along.
Child of music, and mirth, and song !

Oh, Spring ! sweet Spring ! 'neath your gentle reign.

Life, fight, and beauty are born again ;

And sad hearts, hopeless in Winter days,

Break forth to singing glad songs of praise —

For that promise renewed in your yearly birtli
Of a fadeless Spring and a ransomed Earth !

ONLY ''A LITTLE WHILE."

•^.

I saw the sun arise in light at morning ;

My being drank the beautv, like some dream
That comes when all is dark, tne gloom adorning

With gilding mystic-bright — a soul- wo rid gleam.

I saw the noontide flush on grove and meadow,
I heard the coo of birde that seem'd at rest ;

And the fair radiance, all undimm'd by shadow,
Was like a foretaste of the bright and blest.

I saw, when evening's mellow sunlight glinted.
Far and anear, gleaming on wood and wold ;

Mountain and valley shone all carmine- tinted.

Old Ocean's burnished breast seem'd hea/inggoM.

Only " a little while" since morn rose brightly,
Followed by noontide calm : a little while

Since sunset glory lit all Nature, lightly

Blessing the earth with one sweet parting smile.

Only " a little while " — a meet type, showing

How brief is earth's short day — how soo 'tis o'er;

— 23 —

Morn, noon, and night, still onward, onward going,
So soon to land us on the eternal shore.

Only "a little while," poor child of sadness!

The shadows must come first, the clouds and
gloom ;
Then, the full glow of Heaven, the new born gladness.

When Christ, thy risen Lord, prepares thee room.

In that fair Home, where He has p/issed before us,
And in " a little while," shaft call us in ;

Here, with His love's own glory shining o'er us,

Strong in His strength, we run that goal to win !

Only "a little while," gay child of pleasure !

The night is spent so far — the morn is near ;
Then think ! oh, think ! where hast thou hid thy
treasure ?

In these frail, dying toys that charm thee here.

Oh ! in " a little while " their borrowed radiance
Shall fade, as starlight fade- when dawn is nigh ;

A.nd all earth's glittering show, her smiles and fra-
grance.
In the fierce fire of wrath shall melt and die !

Only " a little while ! " would we but ponder

These three brief words, their length and breadth
and height —

A solemn sign to each, a ray of wonder

From the Unseen, to light the spirit's night.

"A little while" -past, present, future blending —
Shall be a tale soon told, and pass'd for aye ;

Then the eternal life,'tl:at cannot die — unending,
Undying woe, or Heaven's own dazzling day.

— 24-
LIFE'S PATHWAY.

,|(

' We walk among labj-rinths of wonder, but tread the mazes

with a club ;
We sail in chartJoss seas, but behold ! the Pole-star is above us ! '

— TUPPER.

tro

Life is a pathway, stretched from morn till eve,
O'er wnich, through shade and sunshine, we must (^

And, whether hright or dark this life we live,
Its end must bring us unto joy or woe ;

Joy, that no mortal's holiest dreams can know,
Or dread, unending, fearful depths of woe !

This path is fair at morning, wondrous fair ;

With verdant windings, hiding from the view
The far-off journey, and what may be there,

Hid by the Future hilltops, high and blue ;
And mom's glad sunlight smiles from dazzling skies,

Gilding the path we tread with heaven-lent dyes.

Oh ! youth is sweet ! for tender hands are near,
And eyes aglow with Love's own magic ray.

Heart meeting heart, each to the other dear —

Through hours that, ere we count them, glide away ;

For none can turn to seek a cherished place —

One only life, whose path we can't retrace !

And soon they pass, these meteor joys of earth,
That flash and gleam along the troubled way ;

Till wondering wanderers question if their birth
Dawns from a Land that knows no sad decay ;

Some sinless region, from whose portals bright

These fleeting rays descent in heavenly light.

Such glorious hues, in golden glory glowing,

When sunrise splendour glads the morning sky ;

That bloom awhile, and as they bloom bestowing
Beauty and light, so soon to melt and die,

Leaving a yearnmg in the darkened heart

To know more closely what we see in part.

The noonday calm, the sunny Summer hours,
The wild-birds' warbled songs, the balmy air ;

— 25 —

Life's early pathway strewn with earth's sweet flowers —
Can these he dying things — so bright, so fair?
the mazes J| Or lights to lead us o'er a chequered road.
And cheer the shadows to a blest abode ?

Oh ! spell-bound Fancy fain would wander far,
If we might only break this mortal thrall ;

And roam, unshackled, o'er Time's broken bar,
Trace these gleams whose glory hghts on all !

Then would we see in all below, above.

The Great Creator's perfect power and love.

Yet in this path that stretched before us lies
We may, as oft with weary feet we tread

Through chequered ways of change, see through the
mysteries —
The living promise from their gleamings shed,

That far from mortal things, and sin, and care.

There is a glorious world, unchanging, fair.

Oh ! may we trace in all that hves and grows
The shadows of a perfect life, unseen ;

As when some star that in the twilight glows
In mirrored dimly in the water's sheen,

And we can see, in the calm lake's cool breast,

The far-off glow that lingers in the West.

Thus, as we onward go, may thoughts be ours
Whose holy pureness in our souls may raise

An anthem of thanksgiving, till life's hours.
Ending, shall find our hearts attuned to praise

That Love which cheered us on earth's chequered way.

O'er the long path that led to Cloudless Day !

CLOUDS IN MAY.

" May is here, sweet * Mois de Marie,' but my sky is
overcast ! "—St. German.

The hush of twilight, fair and still

Great cloud-ranks, bright with gorgeous dyes
That linger in the Western skies,

— 26 —

Ere Night's deep gloom steals o'er the hill.

The wind sighf< softly round the eaves,
The May'v* fresh sweetness fills the air,
And Peace seems hovering everywhere.

Oh, restless heart, that aches and grieves! —

Grieves when the earth is bright and green.
And Summer's balmy breeze and flowers
Are brightening, charming all the hours

That span the long, long "bridge between"

Dear hopes and their fruition, laid
In many a way, by human plan.
But ah ! these dream-world thoughts of man

Soon, soon can droop, and blight and fade !

:,S

We know 'tis best. Then wherefore try

To ask whence come the darksome clouds ?
We know 'tis God's own liand that shroud^

Our coming days in mysteries.

'^ A little while," and there is room
In that bright, blessed land above,
To see, and feel, and laste the love

That sends us now the clouds and gloom.

Why come the clouds ? God only knows
Why human hearts need pain and woe ;
But Faith's glad gleams still come and go,

Like sunbeams flashing on the snows

Of earth's dark winter-time, and He

Shall smile at last, and frosts shall melt,
And heavenly sunshine shall be felt

When Time fades in Eternity !

A FRAGMENT.

'* My spirit beats her mortal bars
As down dark tides the glory glides,
Then, star-like, mingles with the stars, "-

-Tennyson.

Oh, restful peace of night ! The balmy air
Laden with myriad sounds of things so fair,
The waving branches, and the leaves' low whisperiiii;-
The wondrous songs the winding river sings.

■

■',

•e.

vevB

irs

flH

■

— 27 —

That through the meadow-lands and forest ways,
By tlowery nooko, .ir.d glades, and valleys strays.

Oh ! shadowy time of dreams, and mysteries,
And longing hopes ! Far in the dark blu3 skies
The star- worlds glimmer brightly through the night ;
The flowers arc sleeping that at close of day
Wept dew-tears, as the sun's last fading light
From glen and moorland slowly passed away,
When amorous zephyrs wooed them softly sighing
In odorous breaths, as eve's last glow was dying.

Oh ! stars, that through the darkness smile and gleam,
Like glory-rays that gild the dreary gloom,
Or like some soul- world glance or mystic dream
That from the mind's vast store of summer bloom
We feel at times — your influence comes to raise
Our hearts above earth's night of doubts and haze !
For all these holy thoughts of peace, that spring
From hearts at rest from daytime cares and pams,
Are messengers of love, sent from the King
That in the blessed country lives and reigns.
And from its gates, above the starry heaven,
Come mystic rays that round our pathway stray —
His guiding lights that to our souls are given,
Foretastes that cheer and brighten all our way !

SPRING THOUGHTS.

Tennyson.

" Of the bright things in earth and air
How little can the heart embrace-
Soft shades and gleaming lights are there—
I know it well, but cannot trace !"— Kebl a.

Spring comes again, and the freed flowers are springing

From the cold, frost-bound earth ;
And on the budding trees the wild birds singing.

Hail Nature's glad new birth !

And hope awakes from many a heart-gravo lising.
Glad gloriously and new j

— 28 —

And many souls, in faith and trust, are prizing
That promise sweet and true; —

Summer and Winter, ever coming, going,

Springtime and Harvest days,
And falling leaves and opening buds arc showing

God's ever faithful ways.

That point us to the resurrection morning.

And to the gladsome day,
When light eternal, the far East adornin

Shall chase these glooms away.

And she shall rise who left our home so early,

And left our hearts in gloom,
Clad like the flowers, in beauty's bloom all fairly

Arising from the tomb.

In that fair Spring and in that Summer shadeless,

With her we, too, shall live —
There, 'neath His smile whose glory, beaming fadeless,

Eternal peace shall give.

And all these ties that Time's rough hand had riven

Shall be united there.
And every cross a Father's hand had given

Be gemmed with jewels fair !

LINES

;;r-''"

On reading " Lays of Love and Fatherland,"
_ byX. Y. Z.

Oh ! say not now that Erin's harp

Is left untouched by minstrel hand ;
Oh ! say not that no minstrel heart

Sings now of "Love and Fatherland."
Green Ulster's mountains and her vales

Hear once again a patriot's lyre ;
lerna's legendary tales

Once more are told in patriot fire !

— 29-

And hearts beat hi^h, a.s when of uld

In chieftain's hall or peasant's cot
1'he stories of our land were told

In songs whose spell was half forgot
Till, toucned again, the chords resound

That bid our slumbering zeal return,
And souls, so long in coldness bounc',

With old-time fire and fervour burn !

And favoured ones, whom love shall bless

In life's bright, sunny morning hours,
Shall sing in joy and happiness

These songs in Hope's enchanted bowers.
For youth hath dreams, and tho' they go

Like sunset fading from the sky,
The cherished songs of "long ago,"

While memory lives, can never die.

Song's potent powers, like holy things

That hover round our path unseen.
On airy wings, to fancy brings

Old scenes, new-clad in fairy sheen.
And like sweet music heard at eve

In some cathedral, old and grey,
Such songs can cheer the hearts that grieve.

And chase all present gloom away.

IF <* SOME ONE" LOVES US.

If life's path grows dull and dreary,

With grim shadows on it cast ;
If the tired heart grows weary

When all joy seem o'er and past ;
When e'en Hope hath ceased to cheer us

With its warm and sunny ray,
And the peace that once was near us
From our pathway steals away —

There's one source where we can borrow

Sweetest wealth to keep and claim.
If we feel in joy or sorrow
Some one loves us all the same !

— 3() - -

If fair-faci (1 Pleaaure brightly

Beam iii)on our happy home,
And our hearts with hope beat lightly

Of brighter days to come ;
If tickle Fortune, smiling,

Strew the pleasant patn with flowers,
And Mirth, with song beguiling,
Lead the merry-footed hours —
There's a deeper, holier gladness
That is ours to keej) and claim.
If we feel in joy or sadness
Same one loves us all the same !

!| i,:i:

If our thoughts, at evening blending

With the dim and shadowy Hght,
Bring us dreams of bliss unending
In the Haven, calm and bright —
Oh ! how sweet the thought — " for ever

'Mong the sinless ive shall stand,
There united, ne'er to sever.

In the bright and l)etter land :"
And e'en then, refined and holy.

Free from earthly stain and sin,
Shall the pure heart, meek and lowly,
Wear the crown true love shall win.

NEW YEAR'S SONG.

*• Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky.
The flying clouds, the frosty light ;
The year is dying in the night-
Ring out, wild bells, and let it die !

" Ring out the Old ; ring in the New !

Ring, happy bells, across the snow !

The year is going ; let it go—
Ring out the false ! ring in the true '."—Tennyson.

Oh ! welcome ! welcome ! glad New Year !

We hail with joy your birth.
Let peace and love reign far and near,

And plenty fill th^ earth !

— 31 —

Old Year, good-bye ! a last good-l)ye

To sorrow, woe and sin !
Let all of darkness with thee die

And all of light hegin !

When first we hade you welcome here

We hailed yon with delight ;
But ah ! how nianv then were near

So far away to-night !

Ah ! well ! if thorns were 'mong thy flowers,

Or clouds were in thy sky.
We owe thee many blissful hours

Whose memory ne'er can die !

Farewell, farewell, for aye. Old Year,

And as you pass from view,
For all those golden hours a tear

That i)as8 away with you !

" Le Roi est niort !" '' Vive le Roi !"

The Old Year, weeping, dies !
Ere we can mourn, a joyous chime

Peals through the midnight skies.

Oh ! welcome ! w^elcome ! New-born Year !

We join the strains of joy ;
To everyone our hearts hold dear

Be peace without alloy !

Afay fadeless light their pathway bless ;

And, for a lasting stay,
Oh ! may they find that happiness

That cannot pass away.

For years may come, and years may go.

And earthly joys grow old ;
But heavenly love no change can know —

No time can make it cold.

Oh ! welcome ! welcome ! New-born Year !

And, as we hail your birth.
May pure and holy thoughts come near

And raise our hopes from earth !

''I

— 32 —
OUR NATIVE LAND.

Our Nativj' Land ! Our Native Land !

Lon<^ may old Erin's vales be green ;
May plenty smile on every hand,

Be want and woe unseen I
Oh! let us join with heart and hand
To raise the song — Our Native Lanu !

Our Native Land I Our Native Land !

May countless blessings on her smile I
May dove-eyed Peace her lilv-wand

Wave o'er our Emerald Lsle —
Her sons, united brethren, stand,
To raise the song — Our Native Land !

Our Native Land ! Our Native Land I
Let patriot voices join the song,

And swell the chorus high and grand.
Till t verv breeze shall bear it on.

O'er flowery mead and wave-kissed strand

Loud let it ring — Our Native Land !

Our Native Lf ^d ! Our Native Land !

Let Erin's sons the notes prolong,
Together joined — a mighty band —

United by one common song.
'Tis Honour's right — her just coriimand —
Then let us love Our Native Land 1

TO THE SEA.

Oh ! rolling waves, while ye sing around me.

My puL^es beat to your fitful tune,
And higher thoughts in my breast awaken,

But the spell must vanish too soon, too soon.
Here while I lie let your echoes linger,

And rest awhile on this lute of mine ;
And though 1 play with an erring finger,

The sounds shall charm if they're caught from thine,

— 33-

Aiid my nciig slmll ha rich in melody,

Li'aniL'd from thy singing, oli I tuneful Sea !

Smlly sigh while the clouds loom o'er thee,

Dark and grey in yon stormy sky ;
Foaming billows, your angiy wailing

Fills mv ><oul like a hopeless cry !
ITeaving meaat with your great heart throbbing

Ocean pulses that wihlly thrill ;
Wandering waves in such cadence breaking,

Rolling, rolling, and never still.
Oh! that my soul, like thine, were free,
Kager and restless, oh I beautiful Sea !

The clouds disperse, and like glory breaking

In fancy's eyes o'er a poet's dream,
Clad in the sunlight the waters glisten,

And dazzling bright in the radiance gleam.
Far and wide o'er the scene of grandeur

My glad eyes wander, my heart beats high ;
Lost in a maze of light and wonder,

I faint in a droani of ecstacy ;
And the spirit of beauty thou seem'st to me
In that flood of glory, oh ! changing Sea !

Yet best I love when the mystic gloaming

Grown dim, and the crimson sunstt dies ;
For I dream that your mighty tones are changing,

And in psalms of praise through the shadows rise.
Oh ! Nature's or^an ! Methinks thy numbers

Keep time with the songs of Cherubim,
While through hidden caves come the echoes swelling

Their chorus grand to the ocean hymn ;
And my soul, adorning, ascends with thee,
In deep thanksgiving, oh I wondrous Sea !

A FAREWELL SONG.

: from thine.

Oh ! sometimes when our hearts are gay,

And Pleasure round us smiles,
Too soon the hours may pass away

''?:■>

■f

— 34 —

That rosy Mirth beguiles ;
And we may feel a tinge of pain

Amid the festal cheer,
And pause to ask, " When, when again.

Shall all be gathered here ?"

But ah ! the future's dusky veil

Hides coming years from view ;
And still our yearning eyes must fail

To pierce its darkness through.
Buc Memory can hold the past

That we have loved so well ;
And, like a halo round it cast,

Affection's light may dwell.

And thus, my friends, though call'd away

To join another scene,
My thoughts shall often backward stray

To all that once has been.
And bygone hours shall come again —

The cherished times and dear.
And bring the moments in their train

When I was with you here.

And as sweet flowers, tho' sere and dead,

Can bv their fray; ranee bring
Remembrance of the days long fled

Again on Memory's want^f.
So many a kindly smile I'll mourn

With deep and fond regret ;
For though I never may return,

I never can forcret.

N(
So]

SOLITUDE.

"Solitude delig-^ teth well to feed on many thou^lits ;
There, as thousittest peaceful, conuniining with Fanc\ ,
The precious poetry of life shall gild its leadi n caros "

TUPPEH.

Come, Solitude ! best soother of my mind —
The sole companion of my happiest houis ;
The spell, all potent, of thy gentle powers

Here in this lovely spot, I come to find.

— 35 —

Below yon mountains, in the sunset beams,
Lough Neagh's glassy waters widely spread ;
And through the distance, like a shining thread,

The " Silver Bann" along the valley gleams.

Lough Neagh I often in the evening light

I've watched the golden sunset kiss thy breast.
Then, as it died on many a wavelet's crest.

Homeward, unwilling, turned, with fond "Goodnight."

The bare trees in the planting moan and sigh ;

I've watched their leaves from buds, till they had
grown

To vernal beauty. Withered now and strewn
Upon the walks, all sere and dead they lie.

And in the Spring, when the young leaves came first,
Here, often in my lone imaginings.
What golden dreams I knew of glorious things ;

Visions my willing mind too fondly nurst.

Visions that, like the leaves, to beauty grew.

Gladdening my heart thro' sunny summer hours ;
Clad in bright garlands, woven from Fancy's bowers

Radiant with Hope's fau- light of mellow hue.

And are tliey withered too ? All those sweet dreams
That I had hoped in future years to see
Around me bloom, in living, grand reality ;

No longer far-oif things, or misty, meteor gleams.

Some like these leaves, have fallen by the way,
Never again in spring to wake to birth ;
While some are mine e'en now, whose priceless
worth

Shall bloom and ripen, knowing no decay !

Round me the shadows deepen ; and I see

My dead dreams in a phantom band draw near.
And dim iEolian strains fall on my ear,

Like some wild mystic requiem's fitful melody !

Oh ! Solitude ! thou canst alone restore

36 —

The buried by^fone, till the haunted isles
Of memory's chambers shine in moonlight smik^-
Shadows of sunlight from the days of yore.

Oh ! Solitude ! come often for my guest !
Still, when I meet thee in sequestered glade,
T feel thy presence lastiiig peace has made ;

Of life's sweet things, I hold thee first and best !

WITH A WHITE ROSE.

Long ago, in ages olden,

When our world was new ;
When old Time was young and golden,

When men's hearts were true ;
Fairer flowers than now are growing

Blossom'd everywhere —
Beauty to the earth bestowing,

Sweetness to the air !

WeU men loved tLjm, fondly dreaming

They were not of earth ;
in their glorious beauty seeming

Of a higher birth .
And in those Elvsian bowers,

In the days of old,
Speaking all tneir thoughts in flowers,

Thus their love they told : —

One alone, of purest whiteness,

Of them all was queen ;
Sweeter than their hues of brightness

Was its snowy sheen.

If this flower as pledge were given

By true hearts in love.
Though on earth by sad doubts riven,

1 et their life above
Would bo one in joy unending,

Undivided there,
Soul with soul in glory blending

In that liingdom fair.

— 37 —

This the legend I have tokl thee

Of the tlower I send.
Oh, may its sweet leaves unfuld thee

Hope, with such an end !

(«:

THE EXILE'S REVERIE.

It is sweet to dream of the vanished times, in this changing

land of ours,
When we touch the hidden spring of thought, with the

wand of mystic powers,
That RememLiance yields to our yearning hearts, that are

lonely left, and pine
For the loves once ours, till shadowy forms come round us,

and flit and sliine.

Through the gloom that wraps the earth- tired soul, that

drifts on life's sea apart,
Missing the clasp of a kindred hand, or thrill of heart to

heart.
Alone ! alone ! on the wide, wide world, where hope can

console no more ;
Alone ! alone ! on the friendless waste, strange, on a

stranger shore.

Oft times when the gloaming gathers round, and the night

wind moans on the hill
Like a ghostly voice from the buried dead, when all around

is still,
In the midnight darkness and silence, I call through the

mist and maze,
To the sunny joys of the glad, bright dream, of the golden,

bygone days.

Then the poem of the wakened long-ago, to the music of

memory flows,
Now filled as with bridal gladness, now wailing out diige-

like vvoes ;
Through sunshine and summer glories, through brightness

and fragrant blooms.

— 38 —

Through huwUng storms, 'neath winter skies, thruu;^h
weeping and murky glooms.

And then, when the weird strain ceases, and the fitful

music is done.
The pictures I love to gaze on, rise slowly, one by one ;
Through the mist of the past slow coming, they give to my

eves once more,
What Death has stolen from me, and Death can aJuiu-

restore.

Again, as in early childhood, I feel the fond caress

Of my mother's lips, or I hear the tones of my father"-

voice that bless
His child in its gleeful gambols ; Oh ! happy and peaceful

hours !
Ye come in visions of golden noons, and sunshine, and

shady bo v. ers !

And the low-breathed prayer when the sunset glow'd

crimson in the West,
And the sweet " Good-night," and the tender kiss, ere 1

sank to tranquil rest ;
Mother! that prayer still haunts me, adown the dreary

years.
And the earnest tones of thy gentle voice, can steep my

soul in tears.

My brothers ! faithful hearted ! strong in your love, and

true ;
Oh ! breaking heart, do you mock me ? Can they have

perished too ?
In their morning time, when they shared my dreams of a

Crown and a Life-fight won.
Thank God, it was their's so early, when my fight had but

begun !
Oh, darling, best-beloved ! keen now is the aching smart.
As when Death's cliill touch on our clasped hands fell,

when he breathed the hard word " part,"
Only for earth's short span, my sweet, for love can never die.
And the spirit bond but strengthens, as Time's wild waves

sweep bye.

thr

uu-l

the fitful

■

by one ;
^ive to my

can aJoiic

!8S

y fatlu'i"-
d peaceful
tsliine, and

&et glow'il
■ kiss, ere 1
the drearv

steep my

— 39 —

MiiKi ! by the vows soft-whispored, where hand in hand

we strayed
J 11 twiliglit hours, through summer lanes, or roamed in the

lonely glade ;
But the dream in its glory perished, and earth's brightest

ho])e was fled,
A]](] light from my life was faded, when they laid thee

with the dead !

EMe I my bright-haired sister ! tender blossom and pure !
You droo]>ed in that last storm's fury, too fragile its might

to endure ;
And then I left the home-nest when my last sweet dove

had flown,
And sought to forget, amid stranger scenes, the sorrows

my soul had known.

[t's thus the shadowy phantoms come back from the spirit-
shore.

When I cry in my lonely anguish for the joys now mine
110 more,

.nd I thrill with a passion'd yearning for the fuller life
to be,

\^hen my tired soul faints in wonder, lost in earth's
mystery !

r love, and

n they have

Ireams of a

ght had but

ing smart,
hands fell,

,n never die,
wild waves

CHURCH ISLAND, COUNTY DERRY.

• Oh, search with mother- love the gifts
Our land can boast ;

Fair Erna's isles— Neagh's wooded slopes-
Green Antrim's coast."— JVEacCarthy.

In peerless beauty, flushing, glowing,
O'er broad Luugh Neagh's breast.
The sunset banner hovers, throwing

Its glory over the West.
And varied banks of glen and wood,
That smile round Neagh's smiUng flood,
In this sweet hour seem fitting theme
For Poet's song or artist's dream.

— 40

Round the lu)ri/ani, >ternly frowning,
Tlie mountains like a barrier rise,

The purjJe range, Slieve Gallion crowning.
Towers grimly to the western skies.

Northward Lough Beg's bright waters play

Round the Church Isle, where, lone and grey,

The ruined pile with ivied walls

To present days the past recalls.

On many a grave the sunset gleams.

Where calmly rest the sleeping dead —
Tired mortals, done with mortal dreams

In other life, whence they have rted.
E'en now they live I Oh I if to-night
One soul might earthward take its flight.
In awful tones methinks t'would say —
"Prepare for death, oh child of clay !"

Oh, time-worn walls I full manv a word

Ye echoed in the Sabbath calm ;
Love, warning, blessing, oft ye heard.

And solemn prayer, and chanted psalm ;
And funeral dirge, as wild and high
Rose on the ^ale the caione-ciy,
Borne far and wide, o'er fern and brake,

As passed the cortege o'er the lake.

•

And legends of the days gone by
Tell that if, when a funeral train

Passed there, dark clouds swept over the sky,
And howled the wind and sobbed the rain,

Such storm was still an omen blest,

And told the spirit's happy rest.

If all were calm — then woe the dead I

Sad rose their wailing, weird and dread I

And that before a chieftain's death,
On moonless nights, by lightning shown.

How oft they saw the water- wraith,
And heard the weeping banshee's groan.

How many a barque, at midnight toss'd

And in the angry waters lost,

In the grey dawn -light seemed to glide

In phantom-beauty o'er the tide.

it last
Thyl
|\iul th\
I Shall

'ar aws
How

pleat B
^ Her t
^liou s

s
And 1

— .41 —

play
id grey,

ht,

But ah ! the past and all its lore

Is fading from cur hearts away,
And nieuiorie?. of the times of yore

Are all forgotten in to day !
And now, 'tis but by peasants old
These cherished legends can be told ;
For Erin's harp is mute and still,
Its mystic notes no heart can thrill !

Once minstrel hearts awoke its str^^Ti,

And swept its chords with mastti-hand ;
But who can wake these lays again
In songs of love and fatherland ?
Oh I when again shall such as they
Wakfc passion 'd song and warrior's lay ?
Till Erin's vales '^nce more resound
With harp-notes long in silence bound !

LIVINGSTONE.

ilm ;

:e.

he sky,
le rain,

)wn,

•oan.
d

it last thou art resting ; thy life-work is ended —
Tliv life-work so noblv and faithfullv done :

Liid thy name, with the names of the mightiest bleided,
Shall be honored and loved as the ages roll on !

^n^ awav in the wilds, as thv life-scene closed slowlv,
How thv soul must have ynned for one home-voice to
cheer ;

ut the God, ever kind, of the high and the lowly,
With blessings an<l strength to thy spirit was near !

low sweet to thy tired soul that glorious light breaking
In beauty untold o'er the land of the blest,
s thou heard'st, in the hour of that wond'rous awaking —
•'Well done, faithful servant, now enter thy rest I"

[teat Britain's Columbus— her son and our glory I
Her true hearts with love shall beat high at thy name ;
'liou shalt stand 'mong the first in our country's proud
story,
And be graven with fire on the Temple of Fame !
F

— 42 —

Oh ! that .sonic niinstrt'l soul, from the days long dejmiir
Would awaki*, a nioet re([uit'ni o'er thee to sing —

And tell of thy brave deeds — the high, lion-hearted —
Till the listening nations their homage wouhl bring'

A DREAM AT SUNRISE.

Sapphire and rosy brightness in the East ;

Fresh, light-winged zephyrs o'e?' the hill-tops strav

And through the valleys roam, through glens and W(I(m1

Waking the leaves and flowers to morning life.

Seeming to tell to all — "The sun is near !"

Slow — brightening now, the rose-light deeper grow-.

The sai)]thire flames in wondrous golden maze,

And, all unrivalled, the great King of Day,

In dazzling glory, mounts his regal throne I

To me a vision down the sunbeams eame.
When WTapt in wonder by the beauty-spell,
Mv soul, entranced, afar from earth did soar.
Unshackled, free, and drank the grandeur of thehoui
Brightest and fairest hour of all the day,
When new life thrills the veins as when of old
The morning stars their high tlianksgivings raisec',
And all th<? sons of (rod did sliout for joy I
Wondering, I cried, " Oh, Earth is very fair I
I cannot see the shadow of man's fall
On aught around me — sin has left no trace :
Oh I for a bower in such a scene as this,
Where Love and Beautv. ble.ssed bv Peace, might
dwell :"

Then round me, on the light wind softly borne,
I heard the numbers of an unseen harp,
And turning, saw an j.ngel near me stand.
He sang of earthly love, and the soft tones
Of his sweet harp were like ^Eolian strains
Fh.r breathing o'er some blissful Eden world !
And as I listened, all my holiest dreams
Of harmony, ideal, grand, and high,
Seem'd discord. Then methought I .saw,

lT])<)n the morning hills, a huwer arise.

liri^^'lit (iowei'8 of wondrous hues around it l)loonied,

All, fill of httauty that the heart could dream

W iis there ; and, lov'lier far than all,

A svveet-e^^ed maiden, twining rose-wreaths fair !

Dark clouds arose and dimmed the <(lowiiig sky ;
The lightnings flashed, and fearful thunder i)ealed ;
And, as they shook the bower, 1 hid mine eyes,
Figuring to see the beauteous visions fade.

The fierce storm ceased. 1 raised mine eyes again,
And saw the wreck of what was once so fair ;
The flowers had perished, and the maiden wept —
Then all the i)icture melted into air !

'' This sh(>ws," the angel said, " what sin has done ;
Death and decay must fall on earthly things.
See that you read God's mighty Teacher right—
The Book of Nature wide before you spread.
'Twas given for man to look on, love, and learn ;
But men have eyes, and will not read its lore-
Ears, and the God- sent teachings will not heai" I
Earth's glories and her briditness all must fade ;
Vet, while they linger, still they say, 'Prepare.' "

LINES ON VISITING EARLY SCENES.^'

Oh ! well-known scenes of childhood's days,

Again ye meet my longing eycG ;
And still, as memory backw^ard strays,

A thousand tender visions rise ;
Of days when youth's all potent powers
Could trace in light the coming hours,
Of dreams that withered with the flowers

That round my pathway sprung !

When fond Belief, unchill'd by Time,
Buili airy castles, high and grand ;

When fickle Fancy's dreams sublime
Made Earth appear a fairyland !

— 44 —

You school -ho use .st'eiiis tlie Haniv' to day —
Each wcU-remciiihered turn and way
Are there — yet, ah ! how far away

Are childhood'a hours from me !

Still, still the same — the cherished scene,

That ever thro' the varying years.
Deep-graven on my heart hasoeen,

In morns of joy — in nights of tears.
And oft in darksome times of ])ain,
When hope seem'd dead, and comfort vain.
Ye shone U})on life's desert plain

A friendly light, and true.

And often when the tide of care

Beat strong against my fragile hark —
When stormy doubt loom'd everywhere.

With nought to light the gloomy dark —
The faith I knew in early days,
Ere yet I trod the world's hard ways.
Led gently through the 'wildering maze,
And whispered words of peace !

Sweet peace, imid the din and strife
And noly thoughts aud calm repose ;

The promise of a better life —
The joy that from helieviny flows !

As when ^mid these scenes I'd stray,

And dream through all the golden day

Of coming years, in bright array,

Till earth would seem a heaven !

The Hand that led Youth's steps aright,

The Love that blessed its careless hoars —
Shall they not strengthen for the fight,

Then wreathe the Victor's brow with flowers ?
Yes ! and ere from these scenes I go,
I've learned what all must come to know —
Earth's wisdom is but empty show —

" The child shall teach the man !"

— 46 —
IDOL WOKSlllP.

Idol woi'shijt in these later ages,

When the light of learning shines su clear,
(j olden sayings graved on niulion pages —

Wisdom's voices sounding far and neiir.

Idol worship, subtle and deceiving,

Lives mis-spent and talents thrown away ;

(Jrini renioi"«e, and after years of grieving —
Skeletons that haunt us night and day.

Idols have we manifold in number —
Idols woishipped both in age and youth ;

Visions that beguile Hfe's fitful slumber,
Soul -destroying, blinding us to truth.

All unreal dreams that fade and perish,
Painted idols, rich in gilded shrines —

Airy phantoms that we blindly cherish.
Clad in borrowed tints from Fancy's mines.

All the shining, glittering, worthless splendour —
All the brilliance of the earthly toy

That we deck with careful hands and tender,
Is not gold, but dross and foul alloy.

Earth-born idols, lovely but in seeming,
FHtting round us in the moonlight hours

On Love's holy shrino we place them dreaming,
" Though all else may leave us, this is, ours "

• )?

Oh I like meteor-flashings gleaming only
Through the far-olf vapours, dense and dark.

Disappearing, leave», misled and lonely
'Mid the angry waves, the storm-beat bark.

So our earthly idols, vain, deceiving.

Come with promise fair for future years ;

Fill us with false hopes, forsake us, leaving
Nought but memory's torture, gloom and tears.

— 46 —

'K-

Oh! Miav w«', their many tein])tiiigs scoruiii}
From t'ftrlhV .sicpttvs lift uiir yt'aniinj^ sij^lit.

To fadt'less tluwer;* the heavenlv hills adnrniu-.
That shall be ours when we liave gained thr lii^L;

Not the joy whose end is 'doom and sadness —
Withering Mowers that (It^ek the earthly ^od ;

Patience hath her crown — eternal gladness —
By the living "hid with Christ in God."

IN WINTER DAYS.

- ;i''

spring, and Summer-time, and Autumn

Now are flown —
Dreamy noontides — melluw sunsets —

Balmy twilights — all are gone !

Hope's bright visions, carmine-tinted,

Where are they ]
Dreams that mocked us in the sunhght

Now in Winter pass'd away.

Joy shall reign when Spring returning

Wakes tne flowers
That the tender Earth has guarded

Safely thro' the Winter hours ;

But the sad winds round me sighing

Seem to sing
She hath treasures in her bosom

That she cannot yield in Spring !

And I weep in yearning sadness,

Worse than vain,
For the vanished joys that Summer

Ne'er can bring to me again !

— 47 —
PARTED.

Sl.iw. liii^'j'i'iii^' mouths witVi swifter pace move oii —
Let tlii- <laik winter of my life be past ;

Till- • loud athwait tlir sky of summer thrown —
\Vli(»se gh>om ami ihiikiiesH on my heart is cast.

I'iiitKi — Death's deep, dark river ndls hotweeu ;

Tliox' talk- and ramhhs when the dav was done
Alt' now amon^' tlie tilings that once have heen,

And I am left in sadness here alone I

l*;iit<'d — Oh, me, he is for ever gone !

How hopeless nrnn t]m sunst't's gohleu ray ;
ilow far o}f seem those joys we hotli liave known,

ITow cheerless look the j>aths we used to stray !

•hist when the autnmn days grew short and chill,
W'iien all its suhiiy hours seemed past and o'er,

And moaning winds swept wildly o'er the hill,
Like some sere leaf he fell, to rise no more.

The spring shall come, and leaves grow green again,
And vernal heauty to the earth leturn ;

Siinshiiie and flowers shall deck the hill and jtlane,
And birds awake with song to greet the morn.

lUit he has flown far from our wintry sphere,
Where fadeless summer glads the spring-bright clime;

Not where the tempest clouds spread grief and fear,
But safely moored l)eyond the waves of time 1

Mine is the weeping — his the blissful change ;

Mine is the waiting — his the s'glied-for peace ;
Mine through these dreary, lingering years to range,

I'ntil I find a land where 2>artings cease.

RETROSPECTIVE.

I'm frea from the city's noises now.
And the city cares that bound me ;

I chase their shadows off my brow,
'Mid the rural scenes around me.

1^;

— 48 —

;•!'■

1'^ B,\

,»'■'

And alone in the .shadowy evening light,
In the deepening gloom and sadness,

I roam the paths of })ast delight
Of youth's wild dream of gladness.

I see the panorama vast

That to these eyes is giving
The joyous scenes of that dead past

Still in my bosom living.

I call those thoughts and meiu'ries hack
That stern-faced Toil has ])anished,

And wander o'er the beaten track
Of happy days long vanished.

The friends of youth for wh*^m I sigh —
The true and tender-hearted ;

The lia}>piness of days gone by,
The pleasures long departed :

I see them all again to-night,
They seem to come and linger

Like pictures traced in truest light
By Memory's artist finger.

Those happy times, to me how dear !

Well loved, yet lost for ever ;
Those forms that I can fancy near,

Can thev return ? Ah, never !

Grim Time's dark shadow of decay
Falls on our hopes when brightest ;

A cloud may dim our sky of May
When happy hearts beat lightest.

When golden sunbeams softly fall
In light on shrub and flower,

E'en then a storm to blight them all
May in the distance lour I

But still when evening's shadowy light
Steals round in gloom and ^ idness,

I'll feel a thrill of old delight,

Of vouth's wild dream of gladness !

— 49 —
DUNLUCE.

Break wildiy on the foam-giil shore,
nd lliroiigh a thousand secret caves

Ln coiuHTt ^q-and the tuneful waves
■cak

tliroiign a
The shiin wind-voices loudly roar.

Now are the harps of the Ocean waking,

'Mid the howling winds and the billows breaking !

'h(^ mermaid leaves her ocean home

To sing her love-songs, soft and tender ;
'henioonhght gilds the i)reaker's foam,
And bathes tne sea in silvery splendour ;
And the splashing spray on tJie White Kecks falling
Sounds like lonely voices of Ocean calhng.

li, lone Dunluce I looking o'er the sea,
With tower and keeji so grim and hoary,
)o the waves' wild revels recall to thee
Tlie days of youi' long-departed glory —
When the wan, weird moonlight is round thee

streaming,
With the stars' pale light on your grey walls beaming ?

)li, stern old relic of bygone ages !

Oh, stout old scorner of Time's rude hand !

niir name shall live ii. our history's j^ages

While a poet sings in our native land ;
And your fame shall be heard in old Krin's story
When we tell of the days of her vanished glory.

ih I many a tale not in history's keeping,
Of lordly chieftain and lady fair,
[ii tlio gloom of Oblivion now are slee]>ing,
And can never be told in the twilight there ;
WHio repose unremembered in graves unknown.
Where the storms of past ages have o'er them ])lo\vn,

< an almost fancy the winds are singing
Tljo.se stories foigotten by all but thee,
aid the rolling waves in their turn are bringing
Back mem'ries of olden chivalry ;

50 —

Wild minstrels around thee in darkness stealii
The scenes of the long ago revealing.

1^'-

I hear in the distance their harp-notes swelling

In a dirge-like wail o'er the moaning sea,
And I think that their mournful strains are telling
A thousand tales of the ))ast to me !

The echoing caves to their songs replying,
As each fitful sound on the gale is dying I

Wild minstrels of Nature, whose poet-fire

Rings out through her solitudes, wild and grand.
Let your spirit rest on my feehle lyre,

And I'll chain it there with a willing hand !

And when Night hangs her myriact star-lam]» m', >.
Let me hlend her notes with youi wondrous ( lim

THOUGHTS AT EVENTIDE.

■i '

^ m

'* I hold it true, with one wiio sin^s
To one clear lute of divers t unes,
That men may rise on stepping-stones

Of their dead selves to higlier things." -Ten nv-a

Lo ! the sunset fire is burning in the roseate sky of tv'iiiil
Where grand in dying glory sinks the god of day l" I'i
And wide o'er the dewy meadows lie the golden liglii-aif
shadows,
Like gleams that come to cheer us from the reginn^
thehlest!
Slow the fiery orb is sinking down below the purple iikuih
tains ;
Still the s})lendour of his radiance lingers round u> foil
while ;
And the peaceful country bowers, and the stately »
towers,
Are rejoicing in the beauty of the glad, refulgent smiiti

From the trees and from the meadows the bird-sniia
wild and tender,
In sweet and mingled chorus, Hke vesper songs, ari>c :

— 51 —

f\[\\ tht,' evening zephyrs Llendiiig, on their airy wings

fisccnding,
Like anthems uf thanksgiving they are ringing thro' the

skies.

|iL' ( hildren's happy voices Irorn the village playground
steahng,

Witli the cadence of their laughter, co/ue floating through
the air ;

ud ilic face of Nature smiling, every- thought of care be-
guiling,

Soothes my restless soul to musing in the twilight calm
and fair, —

tcL'ps my soul in peaceful musing,'mid the tranc][uil sum-
mer gloaming,
Wliiiii the cares of day are ended, and its labours all are
done ;

^heu the Dove of Peace is stealing o'er the valleys, bring-
ing healing

On lier white wings to the weary, with the rest that they
have won.

[ere let me sit and ponder on life's long and varied story,
On the things that are, and have been, and the times that
are to be ;

If tiie past and of the present, of the darksome days and
pleasant,
And the future years, stiU hidden, that are kept in store
for me.

he 1)ird-siiii2

[lit, tlie past — should I deplore it ? All my longing can't

restore it ;
Still it lies beyond my reaching, to come back to me no

more ;
i- light to keep and cherish, or to let its memory perish,
liike a dream to be forgotton, when the hours of sleep

are o'er?

pkf a dream to be forgotten, like a phantom, a delusion
That but lures away our moments with its subtle, witch-
ing powers.

— 52

-. *■; J. ■'^

!*!-- *

> :

W-T.

Till it sinks o\xv souls in sadness with thn dreams ut nh
gladness,
And the thoughts of vanished pleasures that ran ne".
again be ours.

Let nie cease this idle longing for the days that liave ^
parted,

It is worse than useless wishing for a hght grown ill
and dead :
For joy so lovely seeming, when we clasp them in
dreaming,
And know we must awaken and remember all is lid

Let past failures be our beacon through the breakers >|)i\;;j
around us,
To show where danger meets us on life's rouuli ai
troubled main —
Where earth's joys like billows meeting, on the vuch.
care are beating,
And we see them dashed and shattered where thev aiii|
not rise again.

Let me wake, and cease repining ; let me learn life's sti;:|
nest lesson —
Joys when bom of earth are earthy, and must thei tlutj
fade and die ;

Let me feel new knowledge glowing, on n^y opening vv.

bestowing

The experience tliat will lead me to a fairer, by-and-ld

'Tis our past has made our present, so our present niakij

our future,
Let us work, and cease of wishing — let us rfo, not drai^

through life ;
Ever mindful, never straying, with our earnest heart- >ti|

praying
For the guerdon of the worker, and the winder in thesnitj

: t

LIFE.

Life is a day. In its morning bright
We frolic and scamper, free and light.
'Tis a happy path that we have to run,

53 —

that (an lie;
that liavcilJ

X grown 'id

them 111

■ all is ikil
reaker.^ -pi

's rough ail

L the ruck>.

I ere thcv aiiil

rti Hfe'> strij
lUSt thL'ietutl
opening tvd
', by-and-iivti
^resent niakJ

iOf not (hm
eat heart> d

srin the-trilj

Tlie way is pleasant when new-begun.

Tlic sky of our youth is clear and blue,

VVitli no clouds to impede our raptured view ;

Tliere's a prize to win in its golden hours —

Let us work with zeal, and that prize is ours.

There's a laurel crown for the victor's brow,

And a time to win it — that time is now 1

Now, when our hearts are young and gay,

Ere the light of our morning fades away.

It is hard to work 'neath the noon-day sun,

But the rest shall be sweet when the work is done ;

It is hard to struggle and fight alone,

But the prize we win shall be all our own.

The noontide fades, and the evening grey
Overtakes us soon on our weary way ;
But our day of working will soon be o'er.
And the rest is nearer us than before.

Life is a night, to watch and pray

For the coming dawn of a brighter day ;

But our lamps are trimmed — we have nought to fear,

The darkness is fleeting — the dawn is near.

And now we see through a deirkened glass
The shadowy scenes of the future pass ;
But then, in a morn of unclouded light.
It shall break in glory upon our sight.
The Master shall come when the night is o'er.
And bid us to work and watch no more ;
He shall tell His servants their work is done,
x\nd bestow the crown they have nobly won !

A SUMMER SONG.

The summer flowers in regal bloom
Make field and garden fair.

Their fragrance in the dreamy noon
Perfumes the balmy air ;

The river murmurs through the vale
Upon its sea-bound way.

t':!

— 54 —

•f^-'i

And o'er the pleasant hill and dale
The birds sing blythe and gay^ —
And river, flowers, and birds ti> nie
Are ever bringing thoughts of Thee I

The woods at eve are cool and lone ;

And when I linger there,
There's something in the wind's soft moan

That whispers Thou art near.
My thoughts by Fancy's chains are bound

As by a magic sijcII,
And strange, sweet visions wrap nie round

While in the lonely dell, —
And rustling leaves and murmuring streams
To me are bringing sweetest dreams.

The sunset saddens in the West,

The stars peej) through the skies ;
The weary day is hush'd to rest

By gentlest zephyr sighs ;
The wa^^elets break upon the shore.

The moon shines o'er the sea,
The sandy beech I wander o'er

Alone to dream of Thee, —
And stars, and sky, and moonlit sea.
All, all are bringing thoughts of Thee !

EVENING.

w '

Red shines the sunset in the evening sky,

And paints the cloud-ranks in rich crimson glow,

Till every varying tint in rival splendour burns.

And earth and ocean catch the gleam, and smile

In new-born glory for a time, and then.

As the enraptured gaze al)sorl)S the scene.

It fades, and, growing dim and dimmer, dies.

It is a glimpse from worlds unseen — a light from the lu

visible.
Foreshadowing things the brighter yet to be.
A soft wind- whisper wanders thro' the boughs,
And wakes a thousand harps in forest lands,

55 —

0111 the Li.-

'I'hat all tlie sultry day were husherl, till now,
Wlicii tlir fail twilight spreads her dreamy s])ell :
Tln'V wake to melody so softly sweet that one might think
All aiigt'l's wing hadstirr'd the varied leaves.
Ai)(l swi i>i llie woodlands with ethereal song.
Xdw llic gieat sea, with all its restless waves,
Si'i'iii> calmer grown, as forth the stars appear,
A lid siiiilc uiKjii us from the silent skies,
W'lu'ic nightly, looking down the azure depths,
Tiikr guardian an^^els o'er a sinning worhl,
111 Micii' giand, silent ehx^uence, they show
.' marvels of their great Creator's power.
I Ills i> the time when dreams will come, and bring
Haxs which have fled, and we would fain recall.
A sli'idow thrown across the moonlit walk —
A hrcc/c that, sighing, lifts the woodbine leaves, and strays
111 through the open lattice, may restore
The scenes that long in memory have slept.
All, nie 1 stern Time can take our youth away —
^Vliitcn our hair and mark our brows with age ;
Ihir Memory, kind Memoi-y, that holds the past,
lie cannot claim. Rememl)rance still is ours,
And we may grasp her magic wand and touch
The secret spring that hides our bygone years.
Tln' niuiniur of a brook that flowing glides
lu'iween its violet banks, can call a sigh
Fioui that far time when we could roam at eve
To lu^ar the'*birds that sang the sunset down,
\Vitli w.ld, glad vesper-songs by Nature taught.
riit' earnest face and tender eyes, that beamed
Willi a whole world of deep, undying love,
]?is( > again before my tear-dimm'd sight.
riien came a time when, with slow steps, and voices low

and sad,
Tliey laid her dow . to rest. Then life grew dark.
And all that I had left on earth to love
Has but a grave, beneath the churchyard trees,
H here I could sit for dreary hours and weep.
V ( ars fly apace. The wildest grief grows calm —
As storm-clouds lowca'ing in the noonday sky,
'"^eciu darkest when they hang above our heads —
'"^" we most feel the stroke of sorrow when it falls ;

— 56 —

But Hope draws near, and, pointint; to the Future, wliis.

pers— '' Wait I"
Yes, wait awliile ; and for a few short years
Struggk^, and tiglit, and bear ihv burden well.
The sun that sank below the purple hills,
Leaving the earth to darkness and to night,
Shall bring new glory to the morning sky.
Death's night of gloom shall have its morn of bliss,
And we shall find within the golden gates
Our flowers that withered, in eternal bloom I

]!'M

'#1

TO "W. C. T."

Oh, sad om*, who wails foi- thy love that is slighted

Ltd't lone and foisaken, all joy tied away ;
Thy day-dream of beauty overshadowed and blighted.

Thy sky once so rosy now clouded and grey.
Thine idol was earthly, and earth-like must ]>erish ;

The casket was doubtlessly faultless and fair ;
But 'tis only ihe soul-gem the poet can cherish.

And blend with his dreamings in gladness or care.

The glory that shone like the East in the morning

On the radiant ideal was sweet to behold ;
But, alas I 'twas thy fancy had wrought its adorning,

And without it the real is worthless and cold.
And the poet's high soul ever craves for that beauty

That must be arrayed in the white robe of Truth ;
The Love, fleaven-born, that walks hand-clas])ed willi
Duty^

That thro' life's changing years keeps the heart in it-
youth.

Then shall Truth at the shrine of the False linger pinini^;

No ! Nature rebels^ and Hope whispers, " Atise !
There are re<dons unknown in the glad -sunlight shining—

In the patns of thy calling where happiness lies !
Oh, linger not weeping, in gloom and in sadness,

The days that are coming thy healing shall bring ;
And a love, brighter far, born of Truth and of Gladness,

Shall Phosnix-like up from the dead ashes spring !

— 57 —
SUMMER LONGINGS.

TIkto's a sound of woe in the forest lands,
A wailing sigh in th(^ wild wind's breath ;

The woods are waving their naked hands
Ah they mourn fair Summer's death.

Through the leaHess groves in the twilight hours
(vonie gusts of music that sink and swell,

And I cry, "Come hack, with your light and flowers.
Fair Queen of the year that I love so well !"

Come hack to gladden the earth again,
For the woods are grim in their winter woe,

Th(!re's a dreary look on the lonely plain.
And the hills and mountains are crowned with snow.

And I fancy T hear from the distant hills

A 1)last of wind sweeping o'er the lea,
From the grey old hawthorns and foam-clad rills,

To tell a word of their woe to me.

leart in it^

Oil, Summer, so lovely, lost and dead,
1 miss your sunshine and halmy hours.

And blissful calms, when the noontide shed
Its dreamy radiance on fields and flowers !

I miss your bird-songs that called me up
To welcome the blush of the golden morn,

Wlien the dew-pearls gleamed in the hai'ebell's cup,
And the lark soared high o'er the fields of cox-n^

] miss the hush of the quiet eves,

When the gloaming stole through the silent wood,
And the low-toned zephyrs that stirred the leaves

Were like elfin harps in the solitude.

< *h ! Spring, return w^kh your tender buds,
And thousand splendours to deck the earth ;

Come back and reign in the grand old woods,
And Winter shall ily at your welcome l)irth.

— 68 —

Come back, and wide o*er the hills and valea,
The hii'ds your welcome in j^'lee shall sing ;

And their songs shall float on the gentle gales
Till the eartii m gladness and joy shall ring !

MY TREASURES.

,;,:, *

- p

'■I

Yes, I have treasures — not of gold or silver,
Yet they are hoarded with a miser's care ;

Cherished and loved more tenderly and fondly
Than jmrest gems, or jewels rich and rare.

Only a scrap of ])aper, old and faded,

Only some withered rose-leaves, sere and dry ;

And one long tress of hair, all bright and golden,
Dear relics of the haj)jiy days gone by.

Well I reii' ember that long, dreamy summer,
With all its sunshine and its cloudless davs ;

The pleasant rambles through the lanes at even,
Wlien earth was glowing in the sunset rays.

And when the Autumn, in his mellow splendoui'.

Clothed field and forest in autumnrd elves,
'Twas sweet to wander in the still, weird twilight,

And watch the moon ascend the eastern skies.

' II'

Oh ! blissful hours ! ah, vows so softly spoken,

Ye held a subtle witchery for me ;
I dreamed a heart of love and trust unbroken

Was mine — and mine alone — through time to be.

Alas ! Aot mine that blossom that I cherished.

And hoped would bloom through all the coiuiii^j
years ;
Death's chill hand fell upon it, and it perished.

And left with me but memory and tears !
Oh, woods! though Autumn left you bare andleafl'S

Spring has returned, and brought you life and mirtli
But the dead dream of youth's bright golden morning]

Of love and beauty, can it wake to birth ?

--no-
li cannot be ; tlie time.s that have departed,

The dayn of gladiieys, can return no more ;
And I am hinely hd't and broken-hearted,

Like. some had exile on a foreign shore, —

Wlic), ga/inL' backwards, through the years (^an picture
A time wnenlove and friendshij) were his own ;

Then turning to the present, lone and cheerless,
Finds all his hap})iness in life is gone.

So, now, life's evening shadows, grim and dreary,
In deej)t'st gloom, are round my pathway shed;

Tlic3 beams of hope are growing dim and weary,
And all that once was bright is cold and dead !

Oh, long-lost love ! the gloomy years are fleeting,
Tlirough life's dark dream they ever hurry fast ;

(Jrt^at waves ui)on the brink of Time they're meeting,
Ajid, mingling, rush to form the shadowy Past !

THE GIFTED.

Say, are the gifted born the sons of woe —

Tlic favoured ones on whom kind Heaven hath smiled.

And dowered so richly with its priceless store ;

The lords of earth, the monarchs of the soil —

Men who are bless'd with minds that angels have :

Are these to bear the jibe of vulgar tongues,

To feel the taunts fell Envy madly hurls.

Or brook the scorn gaunt Jealousy may show 1

To tliem such things are but the angry Idast

That mars the bosom of the placid lake,

Which smiles in dimpling ripples at its wrath !

They hive their "world of flower, and song, and gem,

'I'he land of beauty where the poet dwells —

Mis green Parnassus wiiere the Muses reign :

Not Yiidden nor unseen ; oh ! look abroad,

An(i 't'U me if thine eye no beauty sees.

The , olemn grandeur of the Autumn woods,

Ihight-crimsoned with the dying Summer's iDlood ;

The mountains in their hoary splendour drest,

-60 —

Tln' valhiys with their liihls of golcUn Ki'i'ii>
Tlu; {^'h'liH (U'cp hiiUleii, wlu'ie a tliuiisaiid llowei>
In modest Iteauty shim th(^ nooiiti(U' glur«^ ;
The wild-ltirds' song, tlie nimiuur ot tlie streams
That through their lu-atliery l)anks of fni<'iance, gli<i*-1
All these are theirs — their solace, their delight ;
Each with its charm of mystic beauty fraught ;
The gleams that [>ierce the clouds of common life,
And let the light of Heaven's own sunshine in !
They have their dreams in twiliglit's shadowy Ikhu.
When they can strike their goldi'ii lyrt;, and feel
Tlie holy joy the poet calls his own.
And the soft breeze that sings among the boughs
In numbers like the famed yEolian haro
Seems blending with its tones, till eartnly cares
Melt, as l)eneath the syren's spell, and die !

Thus lightly o'er the waves his bark goes on,

Hope for a beacon shining bii<dit above.

While tirndy at the helm stands fair Content

To steer him safely till he reach the shore.

And then, when Death's grim portals open wide,

And he has rtiached the Land he <lreamed and sung,

Oh I l)liss to wander o't-r the streets of gold.

His hari)-notes mingling with the choirs of Heaven !

His hopes all realized, " faith lost in sight" —

His life a poem which God Himself hath read 1

MORNING.

V'l.'.

1'^'

The gladsome Morning looked across the hills,
Clad in his richly tinted robes ; the opal dawn.
Faint blushing in the East, grew clear and brighter,
Till the resplendent sunrise decked the sky.
It shone upon the woods — the birds awoke
To chant tJieir welcome to the god of day.
It shone upon the meadows, and the flowers
Oped their eyes, wln^re the bright dew-tears glisteneii
As they had wej)t thro' the long hours of night,
Heedless of how the star-beams smiled and played ;
And the pale, tender moon, with pitying ray,

,'S<

— 61 —

reams

lit;

;lit;

on lifi',

' ill !

:y Ikmu,

iccl

»ll«,dis

Lookeil down noon their lowly, drooping liea<ls,

Now lifted gladly to the morning light,

Till the warm snnHhine kissed their tears away.

And clouds of fragiance from their beds arose,

That [imortdis zephyrs, as they wandered hy,

W^afted, like sweetest incense, to the sky !

It shoiio upon the rivers, as they flowed

'I'liKtugh fertile meadow-lands, so rich in lovliness ;

Sweet streams, that, rippling on in restful song,

Took up a tone more joyous in that hour ;

And whis])ering leaves, and biids that, far and near,

Fiom grove and hedgerow, warbling clear and sweet

In l)l(;iidiiig music, trembled in the air —

Lik<' matin hymns, that on Cr(;5ation's wings

\V(;re upwaj'ds borne to the Creator's Throne !

ANOTHER YEAR.

Another year hai? well nigh passed,

With all its smiles and tears,
And joys and sorrows that are cast
In Time's great stream, whose waters vast
Roll to the ocean of the Past,

Bearing our hopes and fears,
Where 'neath its waves they mingle fast
With all our vanished years.

Another year ! a span of Time,

That tells of lifework done ;
A book, some pages dark with crime —
Some grand, and holy, and sublime ;
A trumpet, telling ever^ clime

Of uattles lost and won :
A knell of woe — a joy-bell's chime,

Hope dead, and bliss begun !

Another year ! In Spring's sweet hours

What blissful thoughts we knew !
What hopes, that came with opening flowers,
What visions, nurst in spring-wreathed bowers,
When Fancy lent her magic powers

— 62 —

i¥^f

To trace in brilliant hue
Castles of air, and dream-built towers
Too soon to fade from view !

I I

m . :

fc ■

'i\:

Another year ! and I can trace

Footprint? o'er Summer's way,
But turn to find a vacant place,
Where once I met a cherished face,
And well-loved form of youth and grace,

Now pass'd from earth awc'iy —
This year the goal of one bright race,
The close of one fair day.

Autumn is dead. The year is old,

The dull November days are chill ;

The bare woods dreary to behold ;

The northern blast blows keen and cold,

Far sighing over waste and wold,
O'er wintry vale and hill ;

And in its moan are requiems told
For true hearts dead and still !

So must it be. Each passing year

Still bears some joy away ;
Some darling treasure, held too dear,
In trembling bliss, in hope and fear,
Which we would fancy safe and near.

Departs, and seems to say —
" We have no lasting city here,

Earth's life is but a day!"

But Clu'istmas, coming round again,

Shall bring his wonted cheer ;
And Pleasure, in his jovial train.
With rosy mirth and glee shall reign.
To chase these thoughts of gloom and pain

That haunt the dying year ;
And grief-parched lips the cup shall drain
Of " Peace and eood-will here !"

— 63 —
WITH A SHAMROCK.

Here, in these trijile leaves, oh I read from me,
What I, for thee, have dreamed their mystic spell,

Faith, Hope and Love, joined hand in hand, I see,
And this the message that they seem to teli : —

Love, for the present, and the time to be.
Faith, that its might and truth can never die ;

Hope, that beyond the future clouds and mystery
Points to a smiling scene, and cloudless sky.

WAITING FOR THE MAY,"

"Ah! tny heart is weary waiting, waiting for the May !"
Old thoughts come back from the old time.

Where, at even, the -^unset light
GiWs wood and world, ere the glory dies,
And darkness gathers along the skies
And the world is left in night.

Old songs float round in the gloaming,
Sweet fragments that come and go ;

They are echoes, I know, from the olden times.

Holy, as music vesper chimes,
In the days of "Long Ago I"

And faces shine in the firelight ;

And laughter rings through the rooms ;
And memories of bygone springtime eves
Come back to my lone heart that aches and grieves

In the chill of life's winter glooms,

Then, the May of love that I longed-for

Was hid in the future haze ;
I dreamed it a land of joy unknown.
Where bhss and beauty would be my own

Through the length of life's fair days.

So in hope for the May I waited
As gay as the joyous hours

r ! ,f-i >

I. 'in: •;

— 64 —

That sped so fast, on their lightsome wings
Thro' flowers, and sunlight, and glorious thing>
That lived in youth's fairy bowers ;

But the ho])es I nursed in that springtime —

Ah ! nie, but those times were bright I
Are withered now, and no fi uit I see,
Though the bU)Ssoms were iair on every tree
In the gk)W of their promise-light !

Yet, when bv the (jrave where I buried

Those hopes, I stand and weep,
I hear Faith say, as the stoini-winds blow, —
"If in patience, and sorrow, and tear- ye sow,

The guerdon of joy ye shall reai) ! '"

AWAKENED.

-■m

i? .'-

:J )

The glories of fair April's pride
Are smiling round on every hand,

And springtide beauties, far and wide,
As with a garment clothe the land.

In shady nooks, in lonely glades,
In forest alleys wild flowers spring.

In budding stalls, in twilight shades,
In lonely woods the birdies sing.

The violet's bloom on many a bank
Js mirror'd in the waters sheen ;

And 'mcng the grasses long and rank
The yellow primrose flower is seen.

In yon dim wood the throstle sings

'Mong boughs that clasp hands overhead,

And through the air his glad song rings.
As in that April long since dead.

The brook has still the same soft flow,
Whose niuiinur filled the evening air

In those old days of long ago,

Though I may never wander there.

.£>,.

— 65 —

I shut my ej es, and see ho more
The hurrying thi'ong of city ways,

And call to life that dream of vore,
And feel the thrall of bygone days.

The passion 'd yearning for the time,
The glorious time that was to be.

The restless young heart's dreams sublime.
Of all the future held for me.

Ah ! fair the blossoms Hope's tree bore !

I dreamed of Autumn's golden grain —
Oh ! fatal blooms ! ye brought a store

Of deep remorse, of life-long pain !

Oh ! dream of youth, I see you now

With calmer eyes, and world-taught mind,

And know these care-lines on my brow
My waking hour has left behind.

All false the glow that round you shone,
Though fair as Fancy's dream-land light : —

With all your rainbow decking gone
I view your naked wreck to-night

I look au5 bless the sudden blast
That tore my idol from its throne;

And bless the keen jiain of the past —
If pain for error could atone.

False love ! bereft of all your wiles
Dead dream whose sweetness all is o'er,

The memories of your tears or smiles
Can touch my wakened heart no more.

I lay you in your grave to-night
And seal the stone without a si^h,

Rejoicing that your gloom and blight
No more can cloud my brightening sky.

— 66 —
"ONLY."

J'm: ■'"if ■

11. r

1)^

:; f

Only relics, yet precious end pure

Are the dreams of the days of old,
Though they tell of wounds that no charm can m\
And of bright hopes, dead and cold.
Only visions of forest ways,
Only thoughts of happier days.
Only the mow of Life's sunrise haze
When the morning sun was shining.

Only, it may be, a lock of hair, .

Or a flower sere and dry ;
Only a pictured face, how fair

In the light of the times gone by !
Only a sigh for what may not be,
Only a yearning wish to see
The light beyond the mystery
That for weary souls is shining.

Only thoughts of the gladsome time

When the world of youth was bright ;
Only memories of joys sublime —
The gleams of youth's fairy light,
Only sweet flashes that come and go,
Only the thrall that sets heart aglow,
Only the spells we were wont to know
When Fancy's rays were shining.

Only voices we hear no more,

But the echoes haunt our ears ;
Only dreams that are past and o'er

That w^e mourn through the lonely years
Only to find that the sunny gleam
Of earth's love fades like a passing dream,
Only to wait for that deathless beam
That " beyond the tide " is shining.

Only the clasp of a parting hand

On the silent rivers' shore.
As the dear one sails for the unseen Land

And w^e see his face no more, —
Only to gaze o'er the waters drear,

— 67 —

rm can curd

ize
iiing.

Only to wait till the call we hear,
*' Come over now, for rest is near
Where the true life light is shining."

Only the burden all must bear,
Only earth's weight of woe ;
Only to learn from each dreary care
The patience the pure must know.
Only this : — but what welcomes wait
To hail us home at the pearly gate ;
Only to toil until night is late

And awake where the Morn is shining.

FIRST PSALM.

ht;

;low,
know

ng.

y years

ng dream,

leam

lining.

Land

How blessed are they who turn their steps
From paths the wicked choose,

Who stand not in the sinners ways,
And scorners' seats refuse.

Who take their solace and delight

In meditation pure —
The law of God — its depth and height,

Its wisdom, might, and j)ower.

Tliey, like the trees on verdant banks

Whereby sweet rivers flow,
Shall bring forth fruit, and fadeless leaves,

And prosperously grow.

But such is not the sinners' end —

Like the light chaff are they,
Which when the softest winds arise,

Are quickly swept away.

They shall not in the judgment stand,

Nor sinner?, scorning grace^
Be in the congregation found

Where righteous men find place

jar.

The Lord himself the righteous knows —

--68 —

T' ■■■?
I- 1" v

,^;f

'c t

■i; ;.

■(■a;

ii;

)'■

ihi

Ii;

tie marks them from tlieir birth,
iJut godless ways of sinful men
Shall perish from the earth.

HER NAME.

The purple heather on the hrae
Was all abloom ; by glen and wold

The wild birds sang the live-long day,
The corn-fields ripened into gold.

The garden blooms were wonderous fair ;

Red roses blushed in regal glow ;
Carnations scented all the air,

Pure was the lilies' virgin snow.

But fairer than the garden flowers,
Or all the summer blooms, T ween

Was she, whose smiles beguiled the hours —
Was she, whose presence charmed the scene

Oh ! pleasant were the sylvian glades,
Oh ! sweet the hush of summer noon ; —

Roaming 'neath tangled green-wood shades
We deemed that twilight came too soon !

Our home- ward way lay through the wood,
We lingered by the streamlet's side, —

False vows were made what time we stood
There, 'neath the elms, that eventide.

I carved her name upon a tree, —

A gnarled old ash-tree, gaunt and grey ;

"The name may stay," she said to me,
' When I, [)erchance, am fai' away !"

Swiftly the summers come and go.

And life grows stern, and love grows cold ;

Dim are the days of long ago —
Their joys a story long since told.

But, sometimes, at the close of day.

— 69 —

1 dream of that dim wood, and see,
A name upon an ash-tree grey —
'Tis all the pa«t has left to me !

MEMORY.

air ;

10 urs —
the scene

)on ; —
shades
soon !

I wood,

stood
ide.

grey ;
le,

ws cold ;

"And other days come back to me
With recollected music."— Byron,

How memory's boundless store is fraught

With wonders, mystic and sublime !
Bright gleams, that oft we set at nought ;

Sweet messengers from Heaven's own clime.
The wind that stirs the boughs at eve —

A star that glimuiers in the blue
Of nights gemm'd crown, oftimes may wreathe

A halo, strangely sweet and new.

Hound hopes and fears we used to know
In lifes young morning, long ago.

The cadence of the sighing waves

That break in song along the shore,
The winds that sigh thro' hidden caves

Are echoes from the days of yore.
The moonlight, stealing o'er the sea.

So calm, above the restless tide.
Is like the light that used to be

In many a by-gon« eventide,

As memory comes, and paints each scene,
Of loves and joys that once have been.

We feel the power, and own the spell,

That bid tne lonely spirit stray,
In thought, to where our lost ones dwell,

Now from our paths so far away
We say " 'tis dreams that Fancy brings,"

And go our wav, forgetting still;
But on the winds are angels' wings,

And spirit power, our souls that tlirill
With yearning for that life unseen.
Hid far behind this mortal screen.

— 70 —

For Meniury still with subtle art

Unfolds the bygone to our eyen,
And still the lonely, longing heart

Would soar beyond earth's mysteries,
Till wearied grown of useless tears,

And longing for the olden days,
We turn, to see the future years

Lie smiling 'neath hope's rosy haze,
A 'id view the past with hopeful love,
-/hide sure our life is " hid above." —

■-f

'dia *> away from mortal ken, —

These wonderous gleams that round us stray,
These meteors, 'mong the haunts of men,

These holy thoughts, that day by day.
Shine in their light of Heavenly hue

O'er chequered paths of work and love,
Refreshing as the tender dew,

Are stray-beams from the light above
Men call it Memory, but we know
'Tis Heaven's warm light on earth's cold snow !

TWILIGHT.

Twilight's shades ai-e round me creeping,

Nature dons her robe of grey ;
Through the blue the stars are peeping.

Sunset's last, faint streaks decay.

Visions come of bygone hours,

Ere these eyos were dimmed by tears,

Youth's bright scenes unwreathed with flowers
Dimly seen through mist of ^''ears.

Softly through the summer gloaming

Steals this picture of the past ;
Through the wood the breeze is roaming

T' on beams round their shadows cast.

By the murmuring, flowing river,
Sits a maiden waiting there ;

— 71 —

Graven on my heart forever
Is that form of beauty rare !

Vows are plighted, love is given,
Trusting love without alloy.

And the calm, blue, starry heaven
Whisj)ers but of truth and joy !

By the murmuring, Howing river,
Where the shore the waters lave,

Now the moon beams fall and cjuiver
On a green and lonely grave !

Token sad of fond love slighted,
Of a rose cut down in bloom,

01. a fair y ning blossom bb"ght^ '
All too lovely for the toml>.

Softly through the summer ^ n.-hig
Sighs the breeze a requiem low,

And my sad heai t, ever moaning
Answers to its tones of woe !

TOLD IN THE TWILIGHT.

We left our ink-stained office-desk.

Two, young in years, yet old in care ;

We laid aside our world-face mask.

We laid aside our daily task
To l)reathu the country air.

We laid aside our musty books,

Grown almost hateful to our eyes ;
We longed to roam the country nooks.
We longed to hear the murmuring brooks.
And see the ;>unny skies.

We longed to hear the birds again.

Minstrels that through the woodlands stray ;
We longed to hear the reaper's strain
Sung in the fields of golden grain

On the bright harvest day.

72 —

\^,

■'/■■i

■W'r-

Oh ! pleasant were the breezy dowriM !

Km ! fair tlie lanes and nelds ;
Far from the weaiy noise of towns,
We half- forgot grim Care's dark frowns,

'Along ]»eaee such ([uiet yields.

He said, '' Tlie busy city's street —

Tne i)atli of labour and of woe.
The anxious fac^^s, hurrying feet,
The things that every day 1 meet,
Are what I hate to know !

Oh ! might I bathe in Lethe's stream.
Forget the lia])py days gone by,

And know this life a fleeting dream.

And look on every passing scene
As with a stranger's eye.

To walk along this i^uiet lane,

To feel this evening calm —
Ah ! how it soothes my tired l)rain
With peace I thought that ne'er again

Would Idess me w^th its balm.

'Twas ii) a lane like this, at even
My life's peace came to me ;
A great, sweet joy to me was given —
A pure, true love, whose hope has riven
Earth's gloom and mystery.

A maiden, lovely as the glow

Of Fancy's soul-land light.
Once vowed to me for weal and woe,
As calm or storm would come or go.

Her love was 'mine by right !'

'Twas Spring-time then, ere Autumn's blast

Sighed with its dreary moan.
To shake the brown leaves falling fast,
Her sweet life- tale was told and past.
And I was left alone !

'Twas hard to think that she was dead,
'Twas hard to bear such pain ;

— 73 —

TwaM Imrd to feel all briL'htnes.s fled,
'Twas hard to count bright days* swift sped
That could not come again !

I Hought her grave at eve, alone,

And there before me lay
Her tomb, a lily carved on stone,
Meet emblem of my darling one

So early called away.

And, 'neath the lily, words so sweet.
In dreams they haunt my rest ;

Dft at their sound I turn to weep —

' He giveth His beloved sleep.'
Oh ! portion purest, best !

Sleep to the weary body, worn,

On earth, with pain and care,
To meet the ransomed soul, new-born,
On the Great Resurrection Morn,
In God-like beautv fail'.

There, at hor grave, I bade farewell

To all my heart lo^^ed best ;
I left our home, I could not dwell
'Mong scenes our love had marked so well,

I felt Grief's wild unrest."

This is my story told to you —

My holiest dream of life ;
Th ; blest home-love that once I knew
^Vllen she, so good, so fair, so true,

I called my own — my wife !

My sunshine faded when she died,
Such joy I might not know ;
God called her early from my side,
And when I lost my gentle bride
The world seemed full of woe !

He knew 'twas best — my stubborn heart

Had need of chastening pain ;
To bow beneath the rod's keen smart.
To learn, by grief, the better part.
To feel such loss is gain.

— 74 —

And now no earthly idol smiles,

No pleasant pa-^sions lure ;
No fleeting phantom now beguiles
My suul from heaven with tempting wiles,

My hope is fixed and sure.

She waits for me — the swift year's flight

I count like miser's gold ;
I keep the "watches of the night,"
I wait until the morning light

Its glories shall unfold.

SUNSET.

t I

A burning flood of glory blazing far along the West,

And clouas on clouds aglowing towering o'er the moun-
tains' crest

Till the shining, burnished columns and the ranks of crim-
son vie

In a living trail of splendour, lighting all the evening sky!

The grand October sunset burns above the mountains' brow,
Whose grey old heads shine redly, light-kissed and ruddy

now ;
There the sunshine loves to linger in a parting glow of light,
Ere Day his throne resigneth to the dusky reign of Night.

But low and lower sinking, the sun goes down the West.
And the dazzling beams are fading along the Ocean's brea>t.
Till, pale and paler growing, the grandeur dies away,
And the wild waves and the breezes seem wailing for the
Day!

For the fair Day, that has vanished — the brightness that is

fled.
And for all the sunny hours that are ])assed away and dead;
The rosy flush of sunrise, the gladsome time of morn,
And bird-songs sweet, that far and near told when the Day

was born !

The tranquil hush of noontide, the mellow evening hours-
But ah! the Day's departure left desolate the bowers.

75 —

l!.S,

And woodland hanntH, and flowery delln, and mountain

strrani?* and glades
Are luiH ly left in deepening gloom, and mystic twilight

shades !

lie moun-
ts of ciiin-
ening sky I

ains'brow,
and ruddy

DW of light,
L of Night.

he West.
in's brea>t,
way,
ng for the

mess that is

r and dead;
morn,
en the Day

ing hours-

Ijut through the Night's grim darkness the star-lamps

bright shall burn,
'Till the lone Earth, cindered and hopeful, shall wait foi

hay's return,
And gaze with wistful longing, till the dawn the far East

tills,
[And the sun in regal beauty smile o'er the grand old hills.

Then lifr and light and brightness shall be her own again,
And in the new-found gladness she'll forget the night of

I»ain —

iFoiget the hours of darkness when deep in gloom she lay,
jAml her weeping-time of sadness be "as waters that pass

away !"

|Tims, this dreary night of sorrow through which we wan-
der here

lis .»nly transient darkness — the long bright Day is near,
JVVhosc Hyht of ])eace and glory the ransomed spirit fills,
[As it hails the dawn eternal upon the Heavenly Hills !

" CONSIDER THE LILIES.

)wers

Not g(dd nor diamond flash of dazzling brightness,
N' costly thing of earth Thou givest for thought ;

l>ut i.iese sweet smiple flowers, beside whose wliiteness
The great king's glory all would seem as nought.

Tliou knewest how soon must fade all earth's poor sjden-
dour.

Worthless its wealth to Thine all-seeing ey i ;
Tlie short-lived glimmer of its pomp and urundeur —

Fleeting and transient — only born to die.

Thou would'st not point our love to earth's frail treasure,
But to these lilies, beautiful and pure ;

76 —

i:,l

..,.,,..

rr; :. i

*• They toil nor sjan not," yet their life's full measiin
Thou metest, and their clay is kept secure.

Oh, lilies! well I love your snowy pureness !

That once the Master deigned while here to trace,
Pledges of His dear love, whose truth and sureness

Are faintly shadowed in your beauty's grace.

Meek teachers 1 could I learn that lesson given !

If God so clothe the grass with heauty rare,
Shall He not guide us on our way to heaven,

And guard our pathway till we enter there ?

Oh, give nie, Lord, a soul of lily whiteness,

Washed in the blood that Thou hast shed for me ;

Thy Spirit's light to pierce earth's gloom with briglitii(,v,j
And show the wf*y thro' mist and cloud to Thee.

Give me a heaii vvhose treasure is in heaven,
Not for to-nioiro\v feeling anxious thought ;

Even as my day, so shall my strength be given,
And grace sulticient — can I want for aught ?

Oh, give me faith, that on Thy love relying,
From doubt's dark thrall I may be ever free ;

And clothe me, Lord, that in the hour of dying.
Thy rightet)usness, V)lest robe, may cover me !

Thus may I walk, by Thee, my Guide, befriended,
Joyous with joy that knows no sad decay ;

That when earth's sun has set- -her brief day ended- -
My morn ma}'^ break and shine to " perfect day I"

SONGS OF THE SEA

" Mj' 80ul is full of longing

For tho. secri't of the sea.
And the .trt of the great ocean

Sends k restless pulse through nie."

—Longfellow .

In the grey hght of the morning, ere the sun has lit the >ky,l

When the winds ravi^ loud and wildly, to the angry watiiJ

cry,

— 77 —

measiin ^VIIow the mighty, foaming billows thunder forth, in cease-
less roar,

Songs majestic, wild with anguish, woeful wailings ever-
more.

Ill the dawnlight, in the glonming, beating, breaking, o'er
and o'er,

Telling out the ocean-stories, to the wide, encircling shore ;

And 1 listen, till the legends of the past, a shadowy host,

Sitm to gather round, and people stoned Antrim's rock-
bound coast.

Whcrt' the grandeur of the Causeway smiles in scorn at
Art's weak hand.

Seem the wild waves ever singing of the high schemes Na-
ture plann'd,

^^']\x'.n she hurled the giant columns, by some mighty
earthquake shock,
I Till they stand, huge pillar-wonders, by the paved, myste-
rious rock ;

And the dark caves, wierd and frowning, echoing the sea's
wild strife.

Seem to hold some spell unearthly, of the ocean's secret life.

Where th' Atlantic rolls sublimely, lashing round Port

Ballintrae,
Language cannot paint the grandeur of the waves, in awful

play !
Beating, breaking, wildly seething, whilst in restless, fitful

roar,
Deep to far-off deep is chilling, answering round from shore

to shore.
And the spirit of the ocean seems to fill its heaving breast
\\ ith ten thousand prison'd longings, wailing out in wild

unrest.

Softening down to calmer music, round the White Eocks

and the caves,
W ith a tender, nameless pathos, softly sing the curling

waves
Tn the battlement.' and ti.rrets, and the old towers, grim

and hoary,
^Viicre the stern Maccjuillan chieftains reigned in once un-

conquered glory.

^78 —

l;'^].^v

There Duiiluce, in lonely grandeur, frowns in wild, aiulf

deathless pride,
Sentinel of bygone ages, Tinie-tried warder by the tide.

Grey Dunluce, in concert blending, winds, and wave.-, ami

sounding sea,
Seem to sing a dirge of sorrow for the glory fled from tlue,
Rolling onwai'd to the Skerries, wailing far in requiem nioai,
Till they catch the surf's bold thunder round the roiksai |

Innishone,
Wliere the foam-girt shore re-euioes with the burthen cf

the song,
And the angry dashing billows wide and far the cry proluii;;,

When the moonlight, i)ale and faintly, gleams on Maliii

Head's blue crest,
And its .silvery pathway shimmers far across the ocean's

breast ;
When the yeasty breakers glisten softly in the .shadowy light,
When the rocks seem mystic castles, looming grimly tliro'

the night ;
Then the .solemn songs of Ocean, fraught with pieciou?.

new found lore
Bring for Fancy unknown treasure, priceless gems loi

Thought's great store!

Grand old Ocean I howiuy spirit longs to catch thy meludy !
Do thine heart's great pulses quicken with a secret life, uh,

Sea?
Far adown the blue waves, hidden by the heavings of your

breast,
Is there soul to tune your singing, to its ceaseless, Nvild

unrest i
Oh I thou dread and wondrous ocean, tell these m\>tic

songs to me
For their cadence, grand and changeful, haunts my [).'Uli

with mystery.

THE MOONLIGHT,

Silvery moonlight, clear and bright,
Shining down on our earth to-night,

— 79 —

n wild, and m

' the ti.le. 1
waves, ami |

i from tlu'C, 4
juieiu inoai, |
the rocks ai :a

i burtlu'iiit

cry prolong,

IS on MaliiiB!

the uceair;

a do wy light,
grimly thro'

:h precious,

s gems f(ji

ly melody !
;rct Hfe, uh,

ngs of yuiir

x.selet*s, wild

ie.se iin >ti( i

ts my i)al]i

Soft as the touch of an angels' wing,
Tender, beautiful, holy thing !

Seeking the glen where the cool waters flow —
lii^diting the bank where the violets grow ;
(Tilding the crest of the foamy rill ;
Falling in silence upon the hill;
Piercing the denths of the forest glade,
Olaiicing down thro' the leafy shade.
Till the loneliest haunts of the wild wood seem
To rejoice in the light of thy radiant beam !

Glistening out on the trackless deep,

Where the spirits of ocean their revels keej) ;

Lighting the path over the billows' foam,

As the mermaid glides from her gem-built home,

And the peri's song o'er the heaving sea

Sounds in fitful, plaintive melody!

Pouring down on the mountain pass,

Where, tripping light o'er the dewy grass,

The fairies join in their wild, wierd dance,

And the mystic forms thro' the moonbeams glance,

Wnile far and wide on the wi!id is borne

Tlirough answering echoes, the elfin horn.

Flooding with glory the prairie's breast,

Till, all transformed, in the radiance drest,

The shanty, south of the poplar wood,

Seems a sylvian lodge in the solitude ;

And the settler dreams, with a moistened eye.

Of the moonlights and loves of the times gone by.

Gleaming fair on the city towers

Where the clocks, thro' the night, chime the passing

liours.
On the city's heart that no longer beats.
With the ebb and flow of its noisy streets.
And their living pulse-throbs that com ; and go.
To the smile of joy, and the throb of woe !

Smiling down from a cloudless sky,

On the village homes, that all peaceful lie ;

— 80 —

Where simple hearts^ in a happier life,
Know nought of the city's cares and strife, —
'J he hardy sons of honest toil,
Pensioners fi-ee of their parent soil I

To ho]>eful hearts in the morn of youth,
The dream-land of Love, and the type of Trutli,
Where the future shows 'neath its veil of light
An Eden of blissful, untold delight.

In the stern, hard struggle of manhood's days
When tired feet stumble o'er life's rough ways,
And in age's twilight of shadowy gloom,
A dream of the rest that is vet to come.

Shine on, silvery moonlight, shine !
Gladden earth with your beams benign ;
On restless ocean, on tran(j[uil lake.
Through forest alleys, by fern and brake ;
By quiet village, and crowded town.
By mountain, prairie, and breezy down ;
O'er sights of gladness, o'er scenes of woe,
Let the tender light of thy pure beams glow,
And the weary and hopeless shall bless your ligl
And the child of juy have more ])ure delight.

((

GOODNIGHT."

" Until the dav break, and the shadows flee away."

Cant. •-'. i:

Goodnight, beloved ! see the sun descending,

Behind the woodlands of the far, bright West,
And in the glory of the daylights endin

The " Hght at eventide " brings dreams of rest.

Goo' .nij^ht, beloved I now the grey-i\yed gloaming
(ilide.- through the valleys with an unheard tread,

A< A haunts the woodlands, where the wild winds umiii-
ing
Wails o'er the leaves of Autumn, sere and dead.

— 81 —

(Toodiiiglit, beloved ! see the pale stars peeping
Through the blue curtain of the shadowy skies ; —

The lamps the angels hold, their night-watch keeping,
O'er souls who wait their call to Paradise I

Ooodnight, beloved ! a faint, lingering glory,
Of dying daylight glows in parting smile •

Its la^t kis^, lighting all the hill-tops hoary,
As though the hour with brightness to beguile.

So now, I dream, a tender love-light lingers
O'er all the bygone, in a charmed glow, —

That hides the marks of Time's relentless fingers
And gilds the cherished dreams of long ago.

How fair it shines ! but ah ! the West grows dimmer,
The crimson radiance melts to sober grey.

And so earth's dream — light fades in fitful glimmer,
Its meteor brightness swiftly dies away.

Ooodnight, beloved ! for the shadows darken
In gloom around me, and I cannot see ;

(/onie nearer, nearer still ; beloved, hearkin ;
I hear a far-off voice that calls for me.

(joodnight. beloved ! a new li^ht is breaking

o briLrhten nevermore ;

As earth's light fades t(i

(roodnight, beloved ! till that glad awn'

When morning shines upon the oth shore.

LOST.

The sunset burns on roof and spire.
And streets with busy passers rife ;

But ah I it lacks the dream-world fire,
That once 'twas wont to call to life.

That once it kindled in the days
Of woodland haunt and country lane.

Before J knew the city's ways,
Before 1 learned that life has pain.

— 82 —

Oh ! present, with your armed host

Of anxious cares, barbed sharp, and keen

Fade ! for the light of pleasures lost

Shines forth froiii ddVo that once havi been,

ii'W-

imii-

W-t-:

i i:

A fairer sunset charms the West
A mellower radiance fills the air ;

A scene with old-time beauty drest,
Lies stretched before me, smiling fair.

A rustic range-wall, gnarled and old,
A wooden bridge that spans a stteam ;

The glory of the sunset's gold,

The sweetness of my first love-dream !

Two hearts that meet in passion'd thrill,
Whose perfect bliss no words can tell ;

But once in life that joy we feel,
And feeling, prize, alas ! too well !

Oh ! Time and Doubt ! ye fill the heart
Wit^^ sepulchres of Love and Truth ;

Our hopes lie doiad but memory's part
Must still be })layed till life shall cease.

Oh ! swift years ever drifting fleet
Adown life's current, tempe^st toss'd,

Roll on ! till on Tinge's brink we meet
And hail the life where nought is lost !

GOOD WISHES

To ON HIS MARRIAGE.

My friend, on this your wedding-day,

Where Love and [lope unite,
To yield with Hymenal ray
The bridal UKMning bright, —
\Mien hands are clasped
And cups are quafl'ed,
When round go wishes true,

— 83 —

This Hoiig of mine
For Aulu Lang Svne
f >end to her and you.
All echo of the bygone times
To mingle with your wedding chimes !

'' Good luck," on this your wedding morn,

"(Jod speed " for years to be ;
Good wishes, of old friendship born
For days ye both shall see,
When in your bowers,
Bloom promise-flowers,
Ah I ne'er may sorrow's gloom
Bring shadow there,
May sunlight fair
Your hearth and home illume !
All good, all joy, all blessing true,
I wish to your fair bride and you !

May Heaven its choicest riches sei^a

To bless your life's long way ;
May Love its lusting beauty lend
That age can't steal away.

Oh ! may your sky

As swift years fly
Be cloudless, Ijright and fair ;

May joys' own glow

Dispel all woe.
And chase away grim care !

May every good that God can send

Be yours through all your life, my friend !

0NL7 FRIENDS."

said "■ ''ood-bye" in a quiet lane,

tli<' ,ul(»aming, years ago ;

ii' A wi'i'e our words about " 2>arting pain" —
fi' \M'i(j "only friends," you know.

'! trii'uds had we been in the dear, dead hours,
lat >iil] in our liearts would live,

m:::

m-i^\:

,,j,, ^.

— 84 —

At morn we had wandered the wild-wood l)u\vei-<,
We had roamed tlirough the lanes at eve.

We had gatheied the sweets of the summer glado.

The rose, and the violet hlue ;
We had talked of Love in the twilight shades,

And of hearts that were tried and true.

But of our heart's hopes, or our own love-di*eniii>,

Ah I never a word said we,
For Fate had forbidden our li])ssuch themes,

And " friends" we could onlv be.

And our farewell (^ame, like a boding gloom,

That darkened life's morning ray,
And joy's glad glow, and Hope's tender bloom

Died out of one heart that day.

How we thought in that hour of the bygone days,

Of the golden summer prime,
Of the mountains wild, and tlin woodland ways,

And the spell of the gloaming time !

And, it may be, the memory of whispered word-
Came o'er us with 8uV)tle power,

Awaking, unlndden, our full hearts' chords
In the pain of that ]»arting hour.

For our hands were clasped, and our hps once ni'-t,

The first time, and the last ;
Ah me! 'twere well could we all forget.

Some scenes in our buiied past ; —

For the blue outline of the mountains high.

The lake, and the woodland green,
The <|uiet lane, and the twilight sky.

Too oft in my dreams are seen !

And still, tho' the summers are bright and fair.

And the ^ummer woods are gay.
To nie thei'e is something wanting there

That has passed from my life away '.

85 ~

■1' gla<l( ^
ades,

*-(li'eniii>,

)1(>()1U

one days,
d wavs,

d word-
d«

once nit't,

ODE TO SUMMER.

'gli,

d fair,

BoauteoUrt (^iieeii I with crown of flowers,

On your tre*ses sunny shci'n ;
Welcome ' to the "Lone-Land" bowers,
To our praiiies, wild and j^'reen !
In your path spring flowers to meet you,
Nature's choicest glories greet you,
Fair Enchantress! T entveat you,
Listen to my lay !

Smiling Summer, down the ages,

Still your praises have been sung,
And the poets and the sages.
Who have spoke with gifted tongue, —
In our legends, old and hoary,
Thrilling song, and 'trancing story.
Live to-day in deathless glory.
Thrill our souls anew !

Still their songs our breasts inspire,

Still is theirs undying fame ;
Theirs the untanght poet-fire,
That I may not hope to claim ; —
Louder than the war-host dashing,
Blighter than their bright spears clashing,
Shine their souls, like lightning flashing
Through their thunder- words !

Radiant Queen ! Their songs combining

Yield to thee their highest praise,

Round thy Virows of beauty twining.

Fadeless garlands of their lays ; —

Lays whose light our gloom has rifted.
And our yearnings heavenward lifted,
As we soar with them, the gifti.d.
Far from earth away.

(^ueen of Beauty ! Still we sing thee,

Worthy of the j)oets' song ;
Willing homage still we bring thee

A^ the ages roll along.

— 86 —

Soiig.s of birds, and breath of flowers,
Wind-notes, charming woodland bowers,
Mr>rn's fresh glories, gloaming hours,
Yield their sweets to thee !

M()vv the prairie-lands are smiling

With the wt;alth thy reign b'istows,
Brightness golden days beguiling.
O'er smooth sands life's river flows.

Through the air glad sounds are ringing,
Nature summer idylls singing,
I, my simple ofl''ring bringing,
Kneel at Summer's feet!

CHANGED.

I ■!'..'

used to be, when I watched the sun-

It seems the same as

set glow,
In the days of beauty and gladness, the times of long ago ;
Like a light that is dim and far-ofl", for dark years, full of

pain,
Lie, rolled between me and the beautiful i)ast, that never

can come asftin !

Yet Ireland's hills are as verdant now, and the sun, as he

sinks to rest,
As then pours his parting glory, o'er Slieve Gallion's puri)le

crest,

A glory that brightens and lingers, as thttugh it were fain

to stav,
Till the twilight shadows darken, .and daylight dies away.

On Mullaboy the darkness looms weird on the lonely hill,
The cattle have ceased their lowing, and the song-birds'

notes are still ;
And here, in the gloom and silence, 'neath the stars and

the quiet sky,
Old memories throng around me, of days long, long gone by.

Two scenes are ever fairest, and first in this heart of mine.
And with clearer light and brighter, 'mong the dimmer
phantoms shine,

I
^1

....87 —

And porfort in lip;ht and shadow, in tracing true and j^'rand
Are the pictures as nieniury paints them, with firm and
master-hand.

The first i^ a ch)iidless i loonlight, in caha and silvery slieen,
And the range of the Morne Mountains in the dim hack-

l^iound is seen ;
Beneatli tlieni the sea is rolHn*', all fair in the jjjentle light,
And heauty and ])eace are hlending in the hush of the

summer night.

I gaze, till again in fancy, I hear the waves' soft roar,

As ihev break in wild sw(»et music alon*' Rosui^vor's shore;

And a voice with their song is blending, telling the old

sweet tale,
Of a fond, true h)ve, that through life's long years would

never change or fail.

That picture fades before me, and the second comes in view —
A walk 'neatli o'er-nrching beeches, with the sunlight glint-
ing through
Leaves that rustle and whisjier on branches that wave above,
— A silent, tearful parting, the death of a deathless love !

Dead, and yet unforgotten, worn, but never estranged,
The glory and brightness of mornitig to the darkness of

midnight changed !
And hfe is dull and dreary, an<l joy from earth is tied,
For the love that was light and beauty, and joy and peace,

is dead.

SABBATH ON THE PRAIRIE.

The year's first, blushing roses,

Were decking the ])rairie's breast ;
And the summer garb of beauty

Made fair the wild North- West.
It flushed in the sedgy hollows,

And smiled in the woodland dell ;
It whispered in low, soft ze[diyrs

That breathed o'er the lake and fell.

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— 88 —

rJ'

How it glowed in the mystic star-sliine

Of the clear blue Northern sky ,
How it crimson 'd and flushed in grandeur

In the sunset's sweet good-bye !
And gaudy birds from the South-land

Made brilliant the i)oitlar grove,
And ])laintift' calls came sounding,

From the haunts where the plovers rove.

With dream-notes in the gloaming

The wind-lutes swept the boughs, —
Sweet songs of the distant strctchi^s,

Where the moose and bison browse.
And we lay in our cam[», and Hstened,

And thought of the wilds untrotl ;
Of the misty, lonely future,

And the homes on the stranger sod.

And still o'er the wide, wide ocean,

Our eager thoughts would strav,
To the homes and scenes, to the loves and lu ])es

Of the youth-time, far away.
Then we slept, to dream of the morrow,

" 'Twill be Sunday at home," we said ;
" But our church must be the prairie.

With the blue sky overhead."

The Sabbath dawned in beauty.

With a cahu whose breath of peace,
Made a solemn grand cathedral

Of the wild vast wilderness.
The Woods were the soft toned organs,

And the winds, thro' their alleys dim,
Now raised some high, glad anthem.

Now chanted some low, sweet hymn.

We came from our tents together.

And stood on the lone hill-side.
To join in the songs of Nature,

That Sabbath morning-tide.
" With one consent let all the earth,"

Swelled on the sunny air,
And then, how each home-sick heart went forth

In that strange hour of prayer !

— 89 —

Ami the text the preacher gave us

Was, " Rejoice in the Lord always,"
Alike in the summer sunshine,

And the gloom of winter days.
And the clouds of our gloom were banished

Like the mists from the morning air ;
We had strength for the untried future

For God is everywhere.

AT EVENING.

Slowly along the darkening sky

The twdight comes with stealthy tread ;
Far out to west great cloud-ranks lie,

By sunset fiusned a rosy red-
Oh ! shadows of the gloaming time,

Gather, and loom, and darklv fall,
The winding path to Fancy's clime,

Lies hidden 'neath your dusky jiall.

Pent in the city, now I dream

Of country scenes, of lanes and flowers,
Of woodland glen, and woodland stream.

Pictures of l)ygone sunset hours !
Oh, bygone ! mighty claims you own,

That summon me to seek your shrine ;
I hear the call and wait alone.

Until the charmed light shall shine.

'Tis breaking ! Glistening near and far

A radiance floats, of dazzling'light ; —
Untouched by Time, or Tempest-scar

I view my past again to-night !
Oh ! fair, false hope, your fruit is pain.

Oh, Love ! when life's spiing leaves wore green,
Sweet, e'en in thought to sec again

Th' Elysian called " what might have been."

" What might have been," wc scan it o'^r
And charmed we live the dreams in thought,

— 90 —

But wake to find that mist-world shore,
Like cloudy va])or melt to nought. —

The brightness fades, the sweet rays die,
Deep darkness falls and night is come ;

A wan new moon looks down the sky,
And stars are trembling in the gloom.

Morning, and noon, and evening grey,
And mystic twilight, all are flown ;

And e*on my dreems are jiassM away, —
Again I find myself alone !

Young love's sweet morn, when hope was nigh,
Stern noonday toiling, which is best /

Ah ! me, they all must lade and die, —

'Tis but the end can give us rest.

IN PEACE.

The name, the age, and a sentence written

On a marble cross o'er a grassy mound,
Where, calmly beneath slee])s the tired heart smitten.

Cruelly pierced by a dastard wound.
At peace in the heart of the restless city,

Sne slumbers well in her lowly bed,
With never a tear of love or pity

By kindly mourner above ner shed.

High birth is safely, its rank and splendor,

Blazoned lineage, pride and show.
Scorn coward justice, who fears to tender,

The lash to vice, in this world below,
What matter — a thousand such things have happened,

Man has been false since woman was fair ; —
But say, must he stand at yon High Tribunal,

And what account shall he render there ?

TO THE SEA.

'Tis eventide and the sun is dying.
Painting the sky in its roseate beam,

rt smitten.

— 91 —

And out to sea-ward the cloud-ranks lying,

Are crimson -Imght in his patting beam :
In dazzling light o'er the waves extending,

In burnished glow on each foamy crest,
At the golden })ortals of sunset ending,

Its pathway illumines the ocean's breast.
Oh ! light of the sunset, soft and tender,

Oh ! waves that shine in the rosy glow,
Oh ! mountains, so grand in your hoary splendour,

Oh ! billowy ocean that heaves below !

Oh ! rolling waves, that are ever beating,
In wild, sweet music along the shore,

Tell me tales ye are still repeating.
Sighing and moaning forever more ;

In seething foam 'mong the grey rocks meeting,
Where, rushing, ye break in doleful roar !

Sighing on in your restless roaming

Wailing so wildly and ceaselessly ;
In the morning light, or the shadowy gloaming.

Tell me, what are thy songs, oh, sea !

Is thine the wail of a life-long sorrow.
The hopeless crying of hope long dead ;

The deartn of loneness that cannot borrow
One beam of light from the brightness fed.

To point to the dawn of a fairer morrow
Far away in the future spread ?

But, heedless, it rolls in its wonderous splendour.

Onward, in cadence sublime and vast ;
Are these ocean-songs, in their mystic grandeur

Requiems sung for the vanished fjast ?
It is buried and dead, yet still unsmitten.

It lives and blooms in one hidden spot.
Where in Memory's chamber each scene is written.

Graven too deeply for Tune to blot !

But see ! o'er the waters the light grows dimmer,
The white-winged sea-gulls to Westward fly ;

Pale stars look down in a fitful glimmer
As the crimson fades from the opal sky.

— 92 —

I soon shall sleep, and ]>eichance in dreaming,

I'll live aj'aiu in the time that's fled,
And fancy tne rays of its brip;htne8s beaming

In mellow radiance around my bed.
And it may be I'll dream not of bliss that's flit i in;;

But of tliat fair life that is yet to be,
Where no cloud can arise to dim our meeting

As I stand with him by the Jasper Sea !

NOT LOST.

"Mine," saith the Lord, "these jewels bright and pei iKss.

Mine, in the day when I shall count mine own !"
So He has called them, and the hearts left cheerless.

Sad and bereaved, must mourn the loved ones flown.
"Mine," saith the Lord, He gave, and Ke has taken,

In wisdom infinite He dealt the blow ;
And round our hearth their places aie forsaken

But they are gathered to His fold, we know !

Home-gathered early, when the sun so brightly

In life's fair morning tinged their curls with gold,
And o'er their snowy brows all calm and lightly

The joyous span of earth's brief time haa roll'd.
Home-gathered early ; fair to mortal seeming,

The promises that o'er their pathway hung.
But ah ! we cannot e'en in fondest dreaming

Concei>^e their bliss amid the cherub throng.

Eye hath not seen, nor to man's heart is given,

To know what to His loved one He bestows
What joys untold the ransomed band in heaven,

Through the eternal, blissful ages knows.
And the oereavement is no hopeless sorrow,

No lasting parting, but an ending pain ;
We feel that upward, toward the glad to-morrow

Are drawn tnese links of the earth-binding chain.

For well we know that these, our darlings, entered,

Into His joy, shall be at last restored
So while our hope in perfect faith is centred

We wait for resurrection in the Lord.

— 93 —
LOOKING UNTO JESUS:

Woiii and wearied on earth's road

Oft with 8tunil)Ung feet I go ;
Eyes that fain would look to God

Dim and weak with sin and woe.
Hut wlien all my guilty stains

Rise in dread immensity,
Then I know my Saviour's pains

Took the load of guilt from me.

Pardoned, healed, redeemed, restored,
Then I look to Christ, my Lord !

When the clouds of sorrow rise,

And the light of woe is dim,
When the subtle Tempter tries

To win back my soul to him.
Then I look to One Who said,

" All things I have overcome ;
Onward go, be not afraid

1 shall guide to ponder Home !"
Then what evil can betide
While I lean on Christ, my Guide ?

Worn with toil of earthly strife —

Wearied hands and heart grown faint,
Tired of all the ills of life,

For the water brooks I pant,
Then above the world's wild din,

I can hear " Come unto Me ;
I shall heal these wounds of sin,

Give you rest, and make you free !"
When my doubting soul is blest
When I look to Christ my Rest.

Journeying o'er this path of tears
Oft my doubting heart is cold,

Far away my Home appeal's —

The gates of pearl — the street of gold.

Can I ever enter there ?
All the way with danger rife, —

Then the Master's voice I hear,

— 94 —

" i am the Way, the Truth, the Lifi' !
All! what cloiiht can then dismay
While 1 walk with Christ, the Way

"Looking unto Jesus" still

1 i:an l)idi v doubting cease,
Joyful, thou 'beset with ill,

Fighting, yU at perfect peace-
Sorrowful, yet filled with joy,

Tossed, yet feeling ail secure ;
Earth nor Hell cannot annoy

While my peace with Him is sure !
'' Looking unto Jesus," blest !
Soul at anchor, heart at rest !

BY THE WAVES.

A merry )jn*]:) on the sunny air, <l^Xt^t^
And a gleam of tresses, golden bright ; ^'

A 'witching face that is wonderous fair,
A creature of beauty and joy and light.

A rocky coast with the waves at play,
Wild wandering waves that are mad with glee ;

"Tell me, what do the wild waves say,

Are their words in their music ?" she asks of nic

I start and shiver, my heart grows cold.
Aye, cold in the flush of the August sun,

Whose glory lies on the sea like gold,
In farewell radiance, ere day is done.

The eager smile from her lips has died.
For the pain on my face was plain to see,

And she turns to pace the sand by my side
Watching the billows silently.

She does not know — could my darling dream.
Of lost, dead love in her golden world,

Where the hope-flowers bloom, and the joy-light-
gleam
'Neath the rosy light of Love's flag unfurled !

— 95 —

Oh ! girlie mino, with the true brown eyes,
And the perfect faith in y*»ui %\v t«» he,

Cuuhl I leaa you l)ack o'er tht* l)ri(l^'o of sighs
Thnt spans tlie gulf 'tween the past and nie.

T could show you love in its full-tide swell,
Its syren beauty its dream-world light ;

Then, the gathering storm, and the deep-toned knell.
As Love lies bleeding in clouds and ni«jht !

Would you step aside from the shining coils
That circk to-day round your dainty feet,

Coull I show you the woes without the wiles.
In the dregs of that chalice, bitter-sweet ?

Ah ! no, sweet maid, you must "live and learn,"
^ Though experience is bought, it cannot be sold ;
Andithe heart joy's thrill, and the'lBBRrt ache's burn,
Must needs be felt, they were never told I

So live and smile in your fair to-day
And wear the jewel of maiden-faith ;

May its diadem gleam on your brow for aye.
And Truth with your Love walks in step with
death.

IN MEMORIAM.
A. S.

Oh I land of partings, brief and sad probation —
When all la brightest, then farewell must come !

And the lone mourner weeps in desolation.
Earth's l.iirest sj^^eping in the silent toml).

Far from her home, where kindly hands have tendered
A graceful tribute, to her well-loved name ;

Not by chill stranger- feeling coldly rendered,
But by the care respect and love can claim.

And still her memory shall be loved and cherished.
By all who knew her in her sojourn here ;

— 96 —

Like some fair Hower tlmt in i\\v inorninj^ pcrisht <1
In spring's bright lionrs wlien skies vvimc^ blue ami
clear.

Oil ! widowed mother-heart ! dead e'en to hoping' ;

Longing to leave the life whiMict^ joy has flown :
The e>ager hands throngh earth's grinislmdowsgrtipiiii;.

"Darling, ct)nie back to me, I am alone !"

Oh ! yearning heart-cry, in deej) anguish spoken,
In sleepless midnights, or in twilight dreams I

Oh ! aching pain-throb of the spirit broken.

Soon shall these clouds oe pierced by Vlercy'sbeniiiv

These deep, dense clouds of anguish and rejiining
Darkness and gloom that but the present show ;

E'en now, behind them, in the brightness shining,
Wait angel-bands that minister to woe.

Soon shall they come, and bring the consolation.

When the first burst of agony is o'er,
Then when thy soul is calmed by resignation.

Point to the meeting on the other snore :-

Whore safe at home, in Christ's eternal keeping.
Celestial joy her randsonied being fills,

She waits, when thou hast left this vale of weeping
To greet thee on the Everlasthig Hills.

CHRISTMAS.

FIFTY YEARS AGO.

Christmas ! why child, can this be Christmas Eve ?

Ah, me ! the years run swiftly^on'; -CakA*^^

Threads in the warp of this short life we live. "^

And now my chequered web is well nigh spun.

And Christmas seems not what it used to be, —
The good old customs all are changed, I ween ;

Yet memory of old times is left with me —

The days whose brightness these dimm'd eyTs hnvc
seen.

— 97 —

Collie, Elsie, bring your stool beaidt* my chair,
Stir ui) the fire to shine with brighter glow,

And while it flickers on your sunny hair,
rU tell a Chrifitnias-tale of long ago —

Pull fifty years ago, when 1 was young,
And this grey hair like yours was golden-bright,

Wlieii mirth and laughter dwelt on brow and tongue.
In fleet winged hours, that sped with magic flight.

Sometimes, in waking dreams it all comes back, —
FamiHar forms move softly through the room.

Then leave me, gliding up the moonlight trfljtk,
Wafting sweet music down the twilight gloom.

And at these times I see the home that stood.

In the lone highland valley fv r away ;
The snow-crowned hills, the lake, the lonely wood,

Through which I wandered many a summer day.

And I was happy in those summers, child ! —
Life in its morning brightness knows not gloom,

riic rose-tinged future -mists hide waste and wild
As sharp thorns hide beneath the rose's bloom.

And girlhood seemed like some fair sunny day
Without a cloud to mar the summer sky,

On i)leasure's airy pinions borne away
Too swiftly far the winged hours sped by.

Then came a glory-crown to gild the years, —
1 loved ; but 'twas no fancy of the hour,

No fleeting day-dream fraught with hopes and fears,
But Love, that ruled my soul with sovereign power.

■ ,> .. ^

A love that strengthened as the days went past, —

Dearer and holier far than all beside ;
All Eden-world of beauty grand and vast.

With joys new-born, out sj)i'eading far and wide.

Seemed then mine own ; and the long years to be,
Would fill my life with happiness and light,

— 9f; —

Whilt' this great love would tdicd its iK'ams on \\\i-
In glad refulgence making all things Itriglit.

For he — the hero of my life's romance,

Was dear to me — ah ! words can never show,

That passion 'd love, how every tone and glance
Tender or cold, hrought ha])|)iness or woe.

But cherished hatred goads to hitter end
And, mocking, fain would ([uench youth's ardriit h.

We saw a shadow on our life descend —

The full charged storm-cloud of long-gatheriiijin,

My father boasted his high birth and name
And owned a pedigree that he could trace,

Back to the stern old chiefs, whose hostile fani* —
He held the pride and honor of our race.

And still when Cliristmas came he loved to see
All the old customs of our sires kept up,

yule-logs graced the hearth, and Christnin- Jcf
g high, "mid merry song and festal cuj).

Huge
Rani

And on that Christmas day of which I tell
The seasons revelry was held the same ;

The stately hall with guests was furnished well.
And, 'mong, the rest, was bidden Hector Grntiii

He drank to me — ''his lady fair and bright,"
As was the custom of the olden time,

" Your lady ! never, while the sun gives light
Shall Graem ever wed with child of mine !"

And pointing to the door with haughty mein
My father uade him from his board begone ; —

And then a curtain fell upon life's scene —

Blackness of darkness where Hope's sun had >li'»ii(|

Some family-feud, in days long passed away
Between the Graems and the MacDonnell's r^-t;,

And still its memory in his bosom lay

Though seeming peace was made between the iutji

— 99 —

ins (»u iDf

uii had >littutl

>veen the tVie?]

\U[\ ah ! my child, how can I tell the iv.st /
I liv('<l ; hut Heaven in mercy spared the hlow

()l thought and memoiy then, and weeks that pass'd
Were one drear hlauK — I 1\ \i not then my woe,

I'hild, you have never loved, and cannot know
How drear and honelens youth itself may seem ;

The long, blank loveless years to wonder tnrough.
With nought, save memory of a bygone dream.

I'>ut sorrow kills not. we may laugh or weep,
Still Time by stealthy jhding steals away ;

And Winter snows again lay white and deep.
And once again they welcomed Christmaa day.

1 watched them with sad eyes that knew no smile,
And a dull mind from which all hope had flown,

A listless heart that nothing could beguile
Back to the gladness that it once had known.

The dull December twilight grey and cold,
Fell wierd and grim upon the lonely moor ;

The wild wind raged o'er wintry waste and wold,
And in the storm a stranger sought our aoor.

lie asked a shelter from the bitter night

My father's brown cheek blanched to hear that tone,
lie led him forward to the yule-log's light,

A lost — a mourned, but now a new-found son !

Oh I swei'test welcomes on th*^ wanderer fell !

The last ot our long race — returning home ;
Home to the long-tired hearts that loved him well

No more an exile, by strange shores to roam.

" Bid me not rest" he said, '' until you know,
I have a friend who claims his welcome now,

For, but for him, the depth of Alpines snow
Had been my grave, and you had lost your son."

'' Then wherefore w^ait ?" my mother gently said,
" Let him come hither till I bless his name !

— iOO —

And Roderick turned, and forth the stranger lid
And once again, I looked on Hector Graeni 1

No welcome-glow lit up the old man's eye,
Surprise or anger seemed to hold him dunil),

My mother clasped his hand with sob and sigh,
But to full hearts the fewest words will comt'.

Then Hector kissed her hand with courtly grace,—
Bowed lowly to my father, half in scorn,

"Old ills " he said " are hardest to erase
From hearts where gratitude was never born."

But as he spoke the glistening tear drops fe]l

From those old eyes, that seldom tear drops km w.

'' You here" he said "love breaks hates baleful s|u'l],
And gratitude comes forth to yield her due !''

" Let feuds and errors perish with the Past, —
'Tis thus I lay them m a deep dug-grave !"

And, beckoning me beside him, there, at last,
His blessing, once refused, he fondly gave !

Ah ! life is very fair, and love is sweet !

The dark sky cleared, the sun shone out again,
Earth seemed a heaven, with perfect bliss rejSete,

And new-born gladness healed the sting of pahi

And standing by the window hand in hand,

Hearing the storm howl o'er the wastes of snow.

We were the happiest of the happy band
That merry Ciiristmas — fifty years ago !"

BEGINNINGS.

At dawn sweet flushes softly creep

Along the brightening sky,
Pale watchers whom lone vigils keep
Perceive the sign, and cry,

The night is gone, the bright day comes,
And gladsome light the East iUumes !

— 101 —

Bright blossoms on the branches burst,

Then Antunin fruits grow there ;
Su, dreams that sickly hope had nurst
Grown real, make life fair.

And dreams we prize as holy things
That haunt our path on mystic wings.

And so, across life's weary road,

Made dark by many a vvoe.
We hear the tender words wf God,
"Come, follow where I go !"

And listening to that gentle voice
Is fixed the best and earliest choice.

First, we must pray, and watch, and wait.

And bear the daily cross,
And, till we reach the Master's gate,
Count earthly gain as lost,

Then hear, "good servant, nobly done,"
By patience hath the crown been won.

IN REPLY TO "ALONE.

It is the joyous time of June,

And Nature glads the smiling land
Arrayed in garments gay and green

Bestowed by nature's lavish hand.
Oh ! soft the lullaby of streams

'Neath shadow* of o'er arching trees,
When all sweet, summer music seems

To float around us on the breeze.
It greets us in the greenwood glades —

By forest aisles and alleys lone.
Where, wandering in the twiligh^ shades

The poet calls the hour his own.
Perchance he dreams some minstrel hand.

Wakes woodland harps to heavenly song,
While spirits from the golden land

On white wings bear the notes along.

But to thine eyes the world is §rim.
And life is dark through fallmg tears ;

— 102 —

Hath Hope's soft ray grown dull and dim
And paled the brightness of v our years ?

I know your woe — for I have linelt
Beside the new made, grassy mound —

The anguish of bereavement felt

And moaned l^neath the piercing wound.

Through the soft azur veil of e'en

'1 he stars look down with watching eyes,
Beacons to life our tsouls to heaven

And tell of loVe beyond the skies
To tell, tho' earth is bright and fair,

>Still Heaven must be our lasting home ;
A land untouched by sin and care

Where pain and parting never come.

Not far away ; scarce out of sight,

A shadowy veil, a misty cloud.
Is rolPd between us and the light.

From mortal eyes the bliss to shroud.

Oh, thou whose poet-mind can feel

The magic speil of beauty's powers
Let these, His ^* meaner works " reveal

That fairer life that shall be ours.
Where we shall find in fadeless bloom

The love Time's withering l)last had slaii),
Restored from death and from the tomb

To life, immortal life again.
And while we weep for earth-joys fled,

Or sigh to feel ouiselves '' alone,"
While fragrant memories of the dead,

like perfumes round our path are strewn ;
Let us not think them wholly lost ; —

These flowers that glad the wondering vision,
Slept 'neath the winter storm and frost

Then sprung to beauty half Elysian.
Fair blossoms deck the orchard bough

The promise-fruit of harvest hours ;
Nought have we but that promise now,

Yet fr"th already shows it ours.
Oh ! sweet the light around our tombs,

Where promise-buds in faith ai"e sown ;

— 103 —

Faith's eye descerns eternal blooms,

111 Htature of God's fullness blown.
Still ours — the true and tender heart, —

The form that trod these ])aths awhile ;
We said " good-night " content to part

Until the morning hght shall shine.
Oh ! blessed hope ! Oh ! promise sweet !

The harvest of the Lord is sure ;
His Hand shall give the guerdon meet

To all that to the end »jndure !