THE TWO SONGS.1

HEARD an Angel singing
When the day was springing:
"Mercy, pity, and peace,
Are the world's release."

So he sang all day

Over the new-mown hay,
Till the sun went down,
And haycocks looked brown.

I heard a Devil curse

Over the heath and the furse:
"Mercy could be no more
If there were nobody poor,
And pity no more could be
If all were happy as ye:
And mutual fear brings peace.
Misery's increase

Are mercy, pity, peace."

At his curse the sun went down,
And the heavens gave a frown.

Some portions of this lyric resemble the opening of The Human Abstract, p. 111.

THE DEFILED SANCTUARY.

SAW a chapel all of gold

That none did dare to enter in, And many weeping stood without, Weeping, mourning, worshiping.

I saw a serpent rise between

The white pillars of the door,

And he forced and forced and forced
Till he the golden hinges tore :

And along the pavement sweet,
Set with pearls and rubies bright,
All his shining length he drew,—
Till upon the altar white

He vomited his poison out

On the bread and on the wine.

So I turned into a sty,

And laid me down among the swine.

CUPID

HY was Cupid a boy,

And why a boy was he?
He should have been a girl,
For aught that I can see.

For he shoots with his bow,

And the girl shoots with her eye; And they both are merry and glad, And laugh when we do cry.

Then to make Cupid a boy

Was surely a woman's plan, For a boy never learns so much Till he has become a man:

And then he's so pierced with cares,
And wounded with arrowy smarts,
That the whole business of his life
Is to pick out the heads of the darts.

LOVE'S SECRET.

EVER seek to tell thy love,

Love that never told can be; For the gentle wind doth move Silently, invisibly.

M

I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
Ah! she did depart!

Soon after she was gone from me,

A traveller came by,

Silently, invisibly:

He took her with a sigh.

THE WILD FLOWER'S SONG.

S I wandered in the forest
The green leaves among,
I heard a wild-flower
Singing a song.

"I slept in the earth
In the silent night;
I murmured my thoughts,
And I felt delight.

"In the morning I went,

As rosy as morn,
To seek for new joy,

But I met with scorn."

B

THE GOLDEN NET.

-

ENEATH a white-thorn's lovely may,
Three virgins at the break of day.-
Whither, young man, whither away ?
Alas for woe! alas for woe!"

66

They cry, and tears for ever flow.
The first was clothed in flames of fire,
The second clothed in iron wire;

The third was clothed in tears and sighs,
Dazzling bright before my eyes.
They bore a net of golden twine
To hang upon the branches fine.
Pitying I wept to see the woe
That love and beauty undergo-
To be clothed in burning fires
And in ungratified desires,
And in tears clothed night and day;
It melted all my soul away.

When they saw my tears, a smile
That might heaven itself beguile
Bore the golden net aloft,
As on downy pinions soft,
Over the morning of my day.
Underneath the net I stray,
Now entreating Flaming-fire
Now entreating Iron-wire,
Now entreating Tears-and-sighs.—
Oh when will the morning rise?