PR 4099 B162 U5 1898 SRLF ; r; STONES /O UNCUT STONES UNCUT STONES POEMS BY HERBERT BELL LONDON GEORGE REDWAY TO MY MOTHER CONTENTS THE GARDEN ..... Page 9 RUBY HEART . IO THE BREATH OF SPRING . .23 ELEMENTALS . 2 4 "LIFE" .... -33 SPIRIT AND CLOUD . 34 HIBISCUS MUTABILIS , -43 OPALS . . 46 "O HAPPY SOUL" . 5 1 THE FLOWER . 53 THE TWO SOULS . ... 54 LOVE ...... 67 THE GARDEN INSIDE a garden grew a peach, Soft and round, With a blush upon its downy skin ; It fell to ground : And as it lay, two boys passed in, And thus said one : " It's mine ! " and eating it the., while " Take thou the stone ! " Then said the other with a smile : " Thy joy is gone ; But mine doth only now begin, In this the root, From the threads of which the sun will spin The tree, the fruit, An endless joy beyond thy reach." RUBY HEART HE O RUBY HEART ! O Ruby Heart ! Pride of a monarch's crown ! From heaven to earth sent down ! Knit to my life, never to part ! The bloody spear flew true To pierce him thro' and thro' ; I stayed it with my arm, Ere it had done him harm : The monarch lived, and me He gave the choicest gem From out his diadem ; For, Heart, he gave me thee. RUBY HEART n O Ruby Heart ! O Ruby Heart ! Pride of a monarch's crown ! From heaven to earth sent down 1 Knit to my life, never to part ! At the moonbeam's kiss take wings And fly where the maiden sings ! From Love's sweet cup she sips, Prays for her lover's lips. Now, Ruby Heart, away 1 Thy glistening wings unfold ! Return ere break of day, With all her heart unrolled. O Ruby Heart ! O Ruby Heart ! Pride of a monarch's crown ! From heaven to earth sent down ! Knit to my life, never to part ! \Enter RUBY HEART SPIRIT. Ah ! yonder comes my faery heart, Gliding down the moonbeam's thread, RUBY HEART Fulfil to-night thy airy part, While soft she dreams in downy bed ! RUBY HEART SPIRIT I come from the land of fire, Lord of my life, with whom I must die, To perform thy every desire. Command ! at thy whisper I fly ! HE I love the maiden Beatrice ; But know not if she love me too. Away ! and heart with heart converse ! Away ! and tell me in a trice, If she to me will e'er be true, Come sorrow, woe, or sad reverse. RUBY HEART SPIRIT I will go ! while in sleep she does rest, I will tap at the door of her breast, RUBY HEART 13 I will call out her spirit from thence, To the sky we will speed us from hence ; On some lonely peak of the mist We will stand, where nothing can list To the fluttering whispers of love : Yes ! high up in the heavens above, Where the stars ever shine thro' the blue, We will each to the other speak true. HE Fly then, my heart ! fly away ! fly away ! [Exit RUBY HEART SPIRIT. i 4 RUBY HEART ii HE Ah me ! Come heart, and tell me of my love ! Her locks are steps by which men climb on high, And angels come to men from heaven above ; Her lips are heaven's portals, and each eye A gem. Her cheeks are gardens of the blest, Bedecked with rose and lily. And all this To be made mine by the impress of a kiss ! Made mine ? Oh, can it be ? Ah no ! all mortal dust ! The greedy earth at last will claim her own : The steps will fall, the portals close, flowers must To earth return, the gems no more be known. Then art thou only dust, like to the rest ? Nay ! thou art spirit. Those can ne'er be mine : But spirit may ! 'Tis deathless and divine, Made mine ! \Enter RUBY HEART SPIRIT. RUBY HEART 15 RUBY HEART SPIRIT Thine ! but not to be held by the ties Of the flesh. Let thy soul with her spirit arise ! For when voiceless on earth, to the heavens we fled, Midst the clouds she was dumb ; on and upward I led : On, On ! till the light of the earth-star seemed dead ; Past the moon ! past the sun ! past the starlight we sped To the centre of all, where the ether burns red In the quivering heart, whence the sun globes are fed, As each hangeth therefrom by a fiery thread. There we lay with the wraith of a flame for our bed, And her soul spoke to me in low whispers, which said: 16 RUBY HEART " We are one ! we are one ! I am thine ! thou art mine ! We are knit with the union of spirits divine ! " So she spake, and we slid down the thread of earth's sun. She returned to her place, and our journey was done. HE Yes! I know it, sweet guardian, I know it full well; For my spirit has burst all the bonds of the flesh With tumultuous heave, like the ocean's first swell, Or Leviathan caught in a fisherman's mesh. Oh ! how could we sink to a union of clay, When our spirits are one ? Sweet helper, away ! [Exit RUBY HEART SPIRIT. RUBY HEART 17 in HE Come, maiden mine, And let me sip A draught divine Of fragrant wine From thy sweet lip ! SHE Unchanged is the poet's tongue, Tho' the world has grown so cold. Thou dost sing as they sang of old, When the world was warm and young ! HE Yes, love ! for the mountain stream, Sprung from the heart of earth, Recks not the winter's birth ; But flows, like the poet's theme, A voice from the land of dream. B 1 8 RUBY HEART SHE Ah ! but dead is the flower of love, On earth all unknown ; By angels alone It is culled in the heavens above. ** HE Yet the seedling is cast In the gloom Of Earth's womb, Tho' it bloom In the sunlight at last. SHE E'en the seed is killed When the earth is chilled By the touch of the frost, And its promise is lost. RUBY HEART 19 HE Sped from on High ! Immortal ! Divine ! How can it die, Tho' it only be mine To grasp the reflection Of heaven's perfection ? SHE Oh ! what wilt thou do, To prove thou are true ? HE One kiss ! And we fly Hand in hand Thro' the sky, To a land Of bliss. 20 RUBY HEART SHE It is thine ! HE Thou art mine ! The earth is no more ; Up ! Up ! let us soar ! SHE Ah ! we rise To the skies, Two spirits made one ! Past the belt of the world, Where the stars float and swim, Each a glorious sun ! Now their light has grown dim, And, with pinions unfurled, Flame-crowned ideals, the visions we dreamed, Hover around us. They are what they seemed. RUBY HEART 21 HE On ! On ! to the light we see far away ! .Our course is unfinished. Let us not stay ! SHE Oh ! the blaze and the glory, transcendently fair ! Surely God and His angels are waiting us there. HE Yes, love ! When the seed that is sown To its fulness is grown Up above ! SHE It is done ! We are one ! I to thee, Thou to me, Must always be true. THE BREATH OF SPRING OH! why from the earth flees the desolate gloom ? Why spring the flowers once more into bloom ? Why sing the birds in the branches above ? Love is the breath of the spring ! it is Love ! Love ! it is Love ! Cold is the seed in the bosom of earth ; Fair is the blossom unseen it contains ; Lost to the world, to the light it remains, Lost ! till the breath of the spring gives it birth ; Love ! it is Love ! THE BREATH OF SPRING 23 Hushed are the woodlands, the birds hold their songs ; Sweet are their notes, but as yet they are still ; What is the force which shall wake them from sleep ? Wait ! what is this ? Oh, the heavenly thrill ! Love ! it is Love ! Thoughts of high promise, uncertain of aim, Anchorless, rudderless, sink, and are lost ! What ? must they ever by doublings be tossed ? Nay ! there is that which can waft them to fame : Love ! it is Love ! ELEMENTALS UNDINES, GNOMES, SYLPHS, and SALAMANDERS (A Fairy Dance} SYLPHS So we come ! so we go ! A breath in the wind ! So we come ! so we go ! A thought in the mind ! GNOMES To and fro ! to and fro ! The scent of the fir ! To and fro ! to and fro ! The grasshopper's whiir ! ELEMENTALS 25 SALAMANDERS We are here ! we are there ! The sheen of the moon ! We are here ! we are there ! The sunshine at noon ! UNDINES Everywhere ! Everywhere ! A mist on the hill ! Everywhere ! Everywhere ! A glint in the rill ! ALL So we flit thro' the world ! UNDINES The foam on the wave ! SALAMANDERS The fire in Earth's crust ! 26 ELEMENTALS SYLPHS The blue of the sky ! GNOMES The butterfly's dust ! ALL So we flit thro' the world ! SUPERIOR SPIRIT The world is a bundle, Entangled and tumbled ; Who will unravel The threads which lie twisted ? ALL ELEMENTALS We ! we are the spindles, The hands and the fingers, Which spin from the bundle The threads of its fortunes. ELE MENTALS 27 SUPERIOR SPIRIT Rent is the awning Of night ! Pearl of the dawning, O light Of purity rare ! Thy bosom is bare, Thou standest revealed, Pale from thy bath of foam. The glow of thy blush breaks thro' Thy gossamer veins of blue : Wouldst thou be concealed ? Snatch the mist from the rills ! Fly in this to the hills, Over their tops to roam ! 28 ELEMENTALS ii ALL ELEMENTALS On the marge of the azure sea, 'Midst the forests of clouds we dance ; Every song which the throat may sing, Every sigh of the quivering string, Every breath of the wind, are we : Hand in hand thro' the loom of space, Like the threads of the weft, we glance In a wild harmonious race. SUPERIOR SPIRIT The threads of creation By death can be broken ; What then supplieth The warp of the fabric ? ELEMENTAL^ 29 ALL ELEMEXTAI.S Life ! Life is eternal, Unchanging, unbroken ; Though severed the weft, The warp is unfailing. SUPERIOR SPIRIT Swiftly is flying The day ; Soul of the dying ! O ray Of glimmering sheen ! Thou stealest unseen, From the depths of the crimson west. Kissing to rest The weary breast, Thro' the night thou glidest ; But when morning Gives thee warning, In the shade thou hidest. ELEMENTALS in ALL ELEMENTALS Where the mirage keepeth All things fair to see, From every sphere reflected, In golden light perfected ; Where the ether weepeth All the scents which be, Showers for ever tending To a perfect blending, There ! there is our home, High up in the dome Of the circling world. Thence ! thence do we come, Like cloudlets unfurled. The light is our car, From star unto star ELEMENTALS 31 We fly; Hover ; alight ; Then, filled with their sweets, We hie Back to the height Where heaven's arch meets. SUPERIOR SPIRIT The threads are unravelled , The fabric is woven ; What is the purpose, When all is completed ? ALL ELEMENTALS This from us is hidden ; Powers far above us Ply their viewless stitches, Knitting all together. 32 ELEMENTALS SUPERIOR SPIRIT Ye are many ; God is one ; And if any Work be done, It is known To Him alone, Whence it wendeth, Whither tendeth ; Only He Can decree How it endeth. "LIFE" A LICHEN-CLAD abbey lay in ruins around, Where tombs of the dead encumbered the ground,- The signs of a race which had fallen and gone, Never to rise. But there, in a spray of sunbeams which shone On a tombstone, bathed a butterfly bright, And flirted its pollen-sown wings in the light ; Life never dies. SPIRIT AND CLOUD A VAPOUR asleep on the breast of night, Kissed by the rays of the rising light ; Or a foam fleck, blown from the restless seas, Tossed in the arms of the wayward breeze, Is the love of the human soul ! From its home In ethereal flame, it has come To linger awhile on the earth ; And man, like a mote in the sunlit air, Has caught but a gleam of the brilliance rare It brings from the place of its birth. SPIRIT AND CLOUD 35 ii From the lonely tarn on cragbound hill ; From the mere, which dreams in the silent shades Of the trackless wood ; from ocean and rill ; From the dewy earth, when the daylight fades, The troops of the phantom vapours wake, And out of the darkness break : To the glistening dome they fly, Bodiless forms of a perfect grace, Until in the viewless depths of space, Like a silvery web, they lie. 36 SPIRIT AND CLOUD in Oh, the joy ! which thrills thro' the radiant skies, When spirits out of the darkness rise To bathe in the fount of the boundless sea, Which over the sands of eternity To the verge of the earth-star flows ! Oh. the rest ! To be borne past the lonely crest Of mountain, afloat in the breath Of an infinite love, and to find the goal, (So distant in life), in the perfect soul United again by death ! SPIRIT AND CLOUD 37 IV As clouds adrift in the breezes' care On crystal waves of luminous air Meet clouds, and their beings melt into one ; Or caught in the net of the new-born sun, As he springs from the cave of night, they are soon Dissolved through the ether at noon ; Or, when scattered abroad by the storms, And suffused by the ruby-tinted rays, Which pulse from the heart of the sinking blaze, They weave their exquisite forms. 38 SPIRIT AND CLOUD So spirits, controlled by the breath of love, Mingle together like visions of dream, And follow the paths of the stars above, Now lulled by the thoughts of a voiceless theme, Or whirled on the flames of impetuous wind, Thro' the gates of the innermost mind ; Now stretching a rainbow thread From a myriad quivering spirits spun, Thro' the depths unbridged; or from sun to sun, Like a brilliant nebula spread. SPIRIT AND CLOUD 39 VI When mountains awake from their forest beds, And raise thro' the gloom their purple heads, On the pearly wings of the new-born day Come the lightsome mists, to dance and play On heathery moor, or where forest glade Has woven a carpet of shade. The flowers, and the whispering trees, Kiss the hem of their flying robes, and catch In their joyous lips the jewels they snatch From tresses unloosed by the breeze. 40 SPIRIT AND CLOUD VII To the cloud, as it sails thro' the azure sea, Comes the cry of the fainting earth, " Wilt thou flee? Wilt thou flee to the place of thy rest far away, And leave me to die ? Oh, pity me ! pity, and stay To fill me with life once more ! " And the soul Of the cloud is moved, and the goal Of its hopes laid down to give Its life ; to fall from the sky in rain : So it suffers loss for another's gain, And dies, that the earth may live. SPIXH AND CLOUD 41 VIII At the cry of despair, at the passionate call, Which echoes the woe of the human soul Through furthermost space, a spirit will fall ; Will sever itself from the perfect whole, And leave the rest it has won, that the love Of man's dream, exalted above The range of his earthly desire, May lift, like a star seen through clouds at night, His hopes beyond the world's highest height, On wings of mysterious fire. 42 SPIRIT AND CLOUD IX Not in the love of the earth-bound soul Can the spirit find its longed-for goal ! Not in the throb of the human breast Can it win the peace of a perfect rest ! Straight to the heart of the ultimate flame, Far away to the home whence it came, Must the spirit take its flight. There, its breath is a note in the deathless strain Which flashes over the glimmering main In waves of celestial light. HIBISCUS MUTABILIS* * [This flower, which grows in certain Himalayan valleys, possesses the capacity of changing its colour. At night it is nothing but a knot of pressed green leaves. From dawn till ten o'clock the flower opens and looks like a snow-white rose, towards twelve o'clock it begins to redden, and later in the afternoon it is as crimson as a peony. The flower is sacred to the Asuras, who are virgins, devoted to the service of the goddess Chastity. The sun god (Surya) at the beginning of creation fell in love with an Asura ; but his love was vain, the Asura would not listen to him. The natives call the plant " Lajjalu " the modest one.] NYMPH of the mountain vale, virgin flower ! Soul of a maiden fair ! Lajjalu ! Sweet is thy sleep in shadowy bower, Fanned by the moonlit air, Lajjalu ! 44 HIBISCUS MUTABILIS Softly around thee cling pillowing leaves, Hiding thy beauteous form, Lajjalu ! Pale is the snow yon summit receives, Fresh from the whirling storm, Lajjalu ! Paler art thou at earliest morn ; Never a blush is seen, Lajjalu ! Soon he will come, on ruby wings borne, Lover he would have been, Lajjalu ! Darting swift glances of fiery love, Making thy blushes rise, Lajjalu ! Surely thou lov'st him, riding above Deep in the azure skies, Lajjalu ! HIBISCUS MUTABILIS Or why is thy radiant purity Dyed with a crimson glow, Lajjalu ? Love, in the service of Chastity, Spirits indeed may know, Lajjalu ! Perish Desire, that flies with the breath ! Cherished be Love, that lives after death, Lajjalu ! Lajjalu ! OPALS EVEN as cloud-shadows, which on ocean seem To cast a fleeting sadness, are the hours, When in the cool I lie, and watch the showers Of sunlight wake the birches' silver gleam Among the gloomy firs, or hear the stream Glide softly through the tangled grass and flowers, Beneath wild rose, and honey-suckle bowers : The hours when memory melts in present dream. And once again, from foliage intertwined With opening buds, one beautiful girl's face, The spirit of the flowers, I dimly trace ; Clear eyes and faintly blushing cheek, outlined By clustered curls, falling in unfettered grace About her neck and shoulders scarce defined. OPALS 47 ii Hers was no earthly face. Its spirit thrilled And burnt, an inextinguishable flame, Within the throbbing channels of my frame, And all its inter-atomic spaces filled With rapturous love and ecstacy, distilled From iridescent lakes of light. No name Can tell the change which o'er my being came, The yearning passion time has never stilled. In undimmed brilliancy on memory's gaze That star-born beauty must for ever rise ; As Heaven's mysteries revealed to eyes Of man, irradiate the lingering days Of earthly life, or sunset glorifies The darkened waves with paths of golden rays. 48 OPALS in Most sweet the song of birds in early spring, When April thaws the winter-frozen notes, And jets of music rise from panting throats, And through the wakened woodlands fling A passionate melody ; most ravishing, The summer's hum, which pours soft antidotes In sound-sick ears, and gently murmuring, floats O'er scented fields, on pollen-laden wing. But sweeter far the silent interchange Of thought with thought, the voiceless harmony Struck by the finger of eternity From quivering heart-strings ; the communion strange Of soul with soul ; the unrestrained range Of inter-penetrating sympathy. OPALS 49 IV Such was the mute conversing, which did knit Our beings into one. Ofttimes we lay And watched our thoughts, like bubbles, steal away, And upward float, with rainbow fancies lit ; Or from our interwoven spirits flit, Like painted butterflies in circling play ; Or, hand in hand, through starry mansions stray, Exalted by a bliss most exquisite. O bitter pang of unattained desire, Piercing the grosser flesh, which lingers still Unquelled by Heaven's permeating fire, Resist no more in vain the impetuous will Of spirit's energy, and so fulfil The destined peace, to which our souls aspire. 50 OPALS Somewhere in antenatal depths of light She wanders now, while I am left to dwell On earth, and from its fragile beauties tell Her loveliness, or with prophetic sight Rekindle in my thoughts the keen delight Her yielding touch inspired, when first the spell Of deathless love on our two spirits fell, And drew us to the angel-trodden height. Tho' our allotted bourns be sundered far By the ethereal sun-sailed sea ; Tho' all the aeons of infinity, Should come between : no space, no time, a bar Can set to our perfected unity ; For soul is drawn to soul, as star to star. "O HAPPY SOUL" O HAPPY soul ! in those gardens blest, 'Mid deathless flowers for ever to rest ; High up in the cool of the blue, Pillowed and rocked on the sweeping cloud. Sweet Soul, to thy loved one be true ! Chained to the earth, by grief I am bowed. List to my voice ! on the breeze it will rise, Sped from the earth ever up to the skies : " Tis hard to be parted from thee, Seen, but not seeing. Come from above, Sweet Soul, for thy pinions are free ! Comfort my heart with whispers of love ! " 52 O HAPPY SOUL As moves a breath thro' the tops of the trees, And music floats from the sensitive keys, Behold ! at my sorrowful call, Stirred from repose 'neath shadowing wing, On my soul thy spirit shall fall, Lulling the wail of my heart's broken string. THE FLOWER WITH never a kiss from the breeze In the cool of the shadowing trees, Nor a glimpse of the further blue ; 'Neath the gloom of an archway of brick On a stone set in mud, that was thick With the ooze of a drain, it grew ; Yet perfect in every cell. If darkness and filth have no power To kill such a delicate flower, Can the flame of the Spirit's fire, Which in realms of space had its birth, Be quenched by the gloom of the earth ? Nay ! at last it will gain its desire, And rise to the height whence it fell. THE TWO SOULS I i AH ! Breath in the air ! While thy father, the Harpist Breeze, In his sleep is chasing unseen New dreams thro' the strings he draws 'Thwart the vault of the blue above, Thou hast wandered far from thy home And found in thy rambles a toy, So unstirred at the heart's warm spring As to seem but a lifeless thing Which thy wayward fancy could deck With garlands of delicate hue, And leave at its pleasure a wreck ; To take thee again to the blue. THE TWO SOULS 55 Ah ! Breath in the air ! As the spirit of Life art thou come ! At thy touch earth trembles with joy ; Bedecked are the waiting trees With a mist of gossamer green ; The throat of the throstle thaws With a song of wonder and love. Nevermore on fluttering wing Shalt thou fly to the place of thy birth ; For to thee will the quickening earth, With the throb of its new life cling ! 56 THE TWO SOULS Softly now thou breathest thro' the sleeping woodland brake; From thy flowing tresses waking buds their sweetness take. Lightsome birds, warm kisses snatching from thy dewy lips, Waft them to their lov'd ones wing'd with shaft of melody. Tinted mists of sunrise stealing thou dost bear with thee ; From thy scattered treasure many an eager flower sips. THE TWO SOULS 57 in Thy parent's voice comes sobbing from the void, calling thee, It echoes on the sunlit mountain crest woefully ; And down the vale by laughing streams it sighs, " Where ? Oh, where ? " Thro' forest glades with many a whispered cry, " Art there ? there ? " It hastens onward over ocean's breast, far, Ofar! To seek thro' ruby portals of the earth another star. 58 THE TWO SOULS II Ah ! Breath of my Soul ! Sped is the light which illumined the earth, Into the azure dome. There let me fly, Led like the airy swallow Up, ever up by the rays of the sinking sun ; Far, O far, would I follow, Thro' the depths of the sunset blaze, Thro' the girdle of quivering haze, And the cool of the yonder blue ; On, ever on, till the goal of my quest be won ; Till the dreams of my soul come true, And the thoughts of my mind leap to birth, Throbbing with burning life, never to die. THE TWO SOULS 59 ii thou fair shadow of dream, Once seen ; but for ever supreme ! Thine image alone do I know, As a wind-driven cloud in the clear Of a pine-girdled mere : But ever I pray it may grow, Till the form of itself shall appear. Many a year have I flung to the Past- What though an aeon I cast ? 1 am sure of thy coming at last. 60 THE TWO SOULS in Tend thou the flower of my soul On the calm of the heavenly sea ! Ah ! suffer it not to decay ! But with delicate touch unroll Its circle of petals each day, Till its breast is unveiled to thee. There glistens the pearl of my love. 'Tis thine, O 'tis thine, Fair phantom divine, To keep, till our meeting above. THE TWO SOULS 61 IV What beauties of earth can delight ? Dark tarn on the mountain crest, Mirror of moon and star ? Swift stream in the tangled glen, Harping on many a stone ? Hot throb of the ocean's breast, Clasped by the breeze from afar ? Weird sough of the rushy fen Round hovel ruined and lone 'Neath the deepening shadows of night ? Moors, sweet with the gathered scent Of many a new-born flower ? Deep forest, with mossy beds, Raised on the spine-strewn floor Snow children, with drooping heads, Jewels from winter's store ? Spring, nestling with shy content In the blue of her misty bower ? 62 THE TWO SOULS Glad fields, at a kiss from the sun Upblushing a poppy red, Turning their cheeks for more ? Proud autumn, to labour brought Heavy with fruit and corn ? Day's ship, as with Viking dead, Pushed in a blaze from shore ? The moon and a star, distraught In the net of the rosy morn ? From these can no comfort be won ? Oh ! what joy my soul would have filled Had I never beheld thy shape ! But now, with unrest never stilled, Struggle ever I must to escape. THE TWO SOULS 63 What can earth now be to me, When my soul looks up to thee ? Wings, tho' flight be scarcely known, Still are restless to be free. (So do larks, tho' from the nest Close imprisoned in a cage, Press the bars with panting breast ; Flutter, with their wings scarce grown, Eager from this earth to rise, Singing upward to the skies). Yes ! for in another age, Sweeping on from space to space, 64 THE TWO SOULS We have known in realms above Spirits of exceeding grace, And for me there waits afar One, who from this distant star Upward draws my thoughts of love ; One, who flashes back again Visions to my fainting brain, Visions of transcendent bliss, Such as spirits only see. What can earth then be to me, When my soul looks up to this ? THE TWO SOULS 65 VI Far away ! far away ! towards a goal unde- fined, Far away, on a sea of echoing wail My soul rushes out, in its efforts to find A haven of rest, for its storm-tossed sail. As the thunder-clouds trouble the heart of the world, So the thoughts of my mind by their struggles are whirled ; As the lightning of earth meets the flash from above, So the flame of my soul, the embrace of thy love ; As the storm from the world, so the strife from my mind Melts away on the wings of the whispering wind. THE TWO SOULS VII Breath of my soul I Love divine ! From the God-lit place of its birth, Far beyond the confines of Earth, Thou bringest to me A boon of ineffable grace. Reflected in thee, A glimpse of that exquisite face Has been mine. LOVE YOUTH'S golden day has passed away, All wasted ! The looked-for fruit has turned to clay, Untasted, Struggling in vain to climb the steep, Nameless, Man's praise and Heaven's reward to reap, Blameless. The way is lost ; hope, once so bright, is dying fast ; The gloom has come ; one day is numbered with the Past. Do I sleep, or is it death ? 68 LOVE I wake ! I rise ! a ray darts thro' the dead'ning night, Hope reawakes ; the world again is tinged with light, Sighs another morning's breath. Love's ray it is which bids me rise, And leads me onward to the skies ; A golden ladder, stretching past Earth's highest crest, And upward, upward, till at last In Heaven rest ! Printed by BALLANTYNE HANSON & Co. London <5n Edinburgh A 000 560 803 9