A wedding or a festival,
A mourning or a funeral;

And this hath now his heart,
And unto this he frames his song :

Then will be fit his tongue
To dialogues of business, love, or strife ;

But it will not be long
Ere this be thrown aside,

And with new joy and pride
The little Actor cons another part;
Filling from time to time his “humorous stage"
With all the Persons, down to palsied Age,
That life brings with her in her Equipage;

As if his whole vocation
Were endless imitation.

Thou, whose exterior semblance doth belie

Thy Soul's immensity ; Thou best Philosopher, who yet dost keep Thy heritage; thou Eye among the blind, That, deaf and silent, read'st the eternal deep, Haunted for ever by the eternal mind, –

Mighty Prophet! Seer blest !

On whom those truths do rest,
Which we are toiling all our lives to find,
In darkness lost, the darkness of the grave;
Thou, over whom thy Immortality
Broods like the day, a Master o'er a Slave,
A presence which is not to be put by;
Thou little Child, yet glorious in the night
Of heaven-born freedom on thy being's height,
Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke
The years to bring the inevitable yoke,
Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife ?
Full soon thy Soul shall have her earthly freight,
And custom lie upon thee with a weight,
Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life!

O joy! that in our embers
Is something that doth live,
That nature yet remembers

What was so fugitive!
The thought of our past years in me doth breed,
Perpetual henediction : not indeed,

For that which is most worthy to be blest ;
Delight and liberty, the simple creed
Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest,
With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast :

Not for these I raise

The song of thanks and praise ;
But for those obstinate questionings
Of sense and outward things,
Fallings from us, vanishings;

Blank misgivings of a Creature
Moving about in worlds not realized,
High instincts before which our mortal Nature,
Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised:

But for those first affections,

Those shadowy recollections,

Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain light of all our day, Are yet a master light of all our seeing;

Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal Silence; truths that wake

To perish never;
Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor,

Nor Man nor Boy,
Nor all that is at enmity with joy,
Can utterly abolish or destroy !

Hence in a season of calm weather,

Though inland far we be,
Our souls have sight of that immortal sea,

Which brought us hither,

Can in a moment travel thither, And see the Children sport upon the shore, And hear the mighty waters rolling evermore.

Then sing, ye Birds, sing, sing a joyous song!

And let the young Lambs bound

As to the tabor's sound !
We in thought will join your throng,

Ye that pipe and ye that play,
Ye that through your hearts to-day

Feel the gladness of the May !
What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now for ever taken from my sight,

Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower,

We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be;
In the soothing thoughts that spring
Out of human suffering ;

In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
And 0, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves,
Forebode not any severing of our loves !
Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might;
I only have relinquished one delight,
To live beneath your more habitual sway.
I loved the Brooks which down their channels fret,
Even more than when I tripped lightly as they ;
The innocent brightness of a new-born Day,

Is lovely yet;
The Clouds that gather round the setting sun
Do take a sober coloring from an eye
That hath kept watch o’er man's mortality ;
Another race hath been, and other palms are won.
Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that too often lie too deep for tears.

EXTRACT FROM "THE RECONCILER.”

Dora Greenwell.

Our dreams are reconciled, Since Thou didst come to turn them all to Truth; The World, the Heart, are dreamers in their youth

Of visions beautiful, and strange and wild ; And Thou, our Life's Interpreter, dost still At once make clear these visions and fulfil;

Each dim, sweet Orphic rhyme,

Each mythic tale sublime
Of strength to save, of sweetness to subdue,

Each morning dream the few,
Wisdom's first lovers told, if read in Thee comes true.

Thou, O Friend From heaven, that madest this our heart Thine own, Dost pierce the broken language of its moan Thou dost not scorn our needs, but satisfy !

Each yearning deep and wide,

Each claim is justified ;
Our young illusions fail not, though they die

Within the brightness of Thy Rising, kissed
Io happy death, like early clouds that lie
About the gates of Dawn,

a golden mist Paling to blissful white, through rose and amethyst.

The World that puts Thee by, That opens not to greet Thee with Thy train,

That sendeth after Thee the sullen cry,

“We will not have Thee over us to reign ;" Itself doth testify through searchings vain Of Thee and of its need, and for the good It will not, of some base similitude Takes up a taunting witness, till its mood, Grown fierce o'er failing hopes, doth rend and tear Its own illusions grown too thin and bare To wrap it longer; for within the gate Where all must pass, a veiled and hooded Fate, A dark Chimera, coiled and tangled lies, And he who answers not its question dies, Still changing form and speech, but with the same Vexed riddles, Gordian-twisted, bringing shame Upon the nations that with eager cry Hail each new solver of the mystery;

Yet he, of these the best,

Bold guesser, hath but prest
Most nigh to Thee, our noisy plaudits wrong;

True Champion, that hast wrought

Qur help of old, and brought
Meat from this eater, sweetness from this strong.

O Bearer of the key
That shuts and opens with a sound so sweet
Its turning in the wards is melody,
All things we move among are incomplete
And vain until we fashion them in Thee !

We labor in the fire,

Thick smoke is round about us, through the din Of words that darken counsel, clamors dire

Ring from thought's beaten anvil, where within Two giants toil, that even from their birth With travail-pangs have torn their mother Earth, And wearied out her children with their keen Upbraidings of the other, till between Thou camest, saying, “ Wherefore do ye wrong Each other? ye are Brethren.” Then these twain Will own their kindred, and in Thee retain Their claims in peace, because Thy land is wide As it is goodly ! here they pasture free, This lion and this leopard, side by side, A little child doth lead them with a song; Now Ephraim's envy ceaseth, and no more Doth Judah anger Ephraim chiding sore, For one did ask a Brother, one a King, So dost Thou gather them in one, and bring – Thou, King forevermore, forever Priest, Thou, Brother of our own from bonds released

A Law of Liberty,

A Service making free,
A Commonweal where each has all in Thee.

And not alone these wide, Deep-planted yearnings, seeking with a cry Their meat from God, in Thee are satisfied ; But all our instincts waking suddenly Within the soul, like infants from their sleep That stretch their arms into the dark and weep, Thy voice can still. The stricken heart bereft Of all its brood of singing hopes, and left 'Mid leafless boughs, a cold, forsaken nest With snow-flakes in it, folded in Thy breast Doth lose its deadly chill; and grief that creeps Unto Thy side for shelter, finding there The wound's deep cleft, forgets its moan, and weeps Calm, quiet tears, and on Thy forehead Care Hath looked until its thorns, no longer bare, Put forth pale roses.

Pain on Thee doth press Its quivering ch 'ek, and all the weariness,