BARREN BLOSSOM.

FEARED the fury of my wind

Would blight all blossoms fair and

true;

And my sun it shined and shined,
And my wind it never blew.

But a blossom fair or true

Was not found on any tree;
For all blossoms grew and grew
Fruitless, false, though fair to see.

NIGHT AND DAY.

ILENT, silent Night,
Quench the holy light
Of thy torches bright;

For, possessed of Day,
Thousand spirits stray
That sweet joys betray.

Why should joys be sweet
Used with deceit,

Nor with sorrows meet?

But an honest joy
Doth itself destroy

For a harlot coy.

IN A MYRTLE SHADE.

O a lovely myrtle bound,
Blossoms showering all around,
Oh how weak and weary I
Underneath my myrtle lie!

Why should I be bound to thee,
O my lovely myrtle-tree?
Love, free love, cannot be bound
Το any tree that grows on ground.

FOR A PICTURE OF THE LAST JUDGMENT.

DEDICATION.

HE caverns of the Grave I've seen,
And these I showed to England's
Queen;1

But now the caves of Hell I view,—
Whom shall I dare to show them to?
What mighty soul in beauty's form
Shall dauntless view the infernal storm?
Egremont's Countess can control

The flames of hell that round me roll.

See the Dedication (addressed to Queen Charlotte) of the illustrations to Blair's Grave.

If she refuse, I still go on,

Till the heavens and earth are gone;
Still admired by noble minds,
Followed by Envy on the winds.
Re-engraved time after time,
Ever in their youthful prime,
My designs unchanged remain;
Time may rage, but rage in vain;
For above Time's troubled fountains,
On the great Atlantic mountains,
In my golden house on high,
There they shine eternally.

MAMMON.

ROSE up at the dawn of day.-
"Get thee away! get thee away!
Pray'st thou for riches? Away! away!
This is the throne of Mammon grey."

Said I: "This, sure, is very odd;
I took it to be the throne of God.
Everything besides I have:

It's only riches that I can crave.

"I have mental joys and mental health,
Mental friends and mental wealth;

I've a wife that I love, and that loves me;
I've all but riches bodily.

66

Then, if for riches I must not pray, God knows, it's little prayers I need say I am in God's presence night and day; He never turns his face away.

"The accuser of sins by my side doth stand,
And he holds my money-bag in his hand;
For my wordly things God makes him pay;
And he'd pay for more, if to him I would pray.

"He says, if I worship not him for a god,
I shall eat coarser food, and go worse shod;
But, as I don't value such things as these,
You must do, Mr. Devil, just as God please."

FATHER OF JEALOUSY.

HY art thou silent and invisible,
Father of Jealousy?

Why dost thou hide thyself in clouds
From every searching eye?

Why darkness and obscurity

In all thy words and laws,—

That none dare eat the fruit but from

The wily serpent's jaws?

Or is it because secresy

Gains females' loud applause?

IDOLATRY.

F it is true, what the Prophets write, That the Heathen Gods are all stocks and stones,

Shall we, for the sake of being polite, Feed them with the juice of our marrow-bones?

And, if Bezaleel and Aholiab1 drew

What the finger of God pointed to their view,
Shall we suffer the Roman and Grecian rods
To compel us to worship them as Gods?

They stole them from

The Temple of the Lord,

And worshiped them that they might make
Inspired art abhorred.

The wood and stone were called the holy things, And their sublime intent given to their kings; All the atonements of Jehovah spurned,

And criminals to sacrifices turned.

'The artificers of the decorations to the Mosaic tabernacle. See Exodus, chap. 31.