Along the city ways with heart And vocal with such songs as own 'Twas hard to sing by Babel's stream, For sunless walls,- let us begin, To me fair memories belong Of scenes that erst did bless ; Like types, in purer things than they! I will have hopes that cannot fade, My spirit and my God shall be My sea-ward hill, my boundless sea. E. B. Browning CCXXVI E TO A SKYLARK THEREAL minstrel, pilgrim of the sky, Dost thou despise the earth where cares abound? Or, while thy wings aspire, are heart and eye Both with thy nest upon the dewy ground? Thy nest which thou canst drop into at will, Those quivering wings composed, that music still. Leave to the nightingale her shady wood CCXXVII T TO THE FIRST SWALLOW IS not one blossom makes a spring, Nor yet one swallow makes a summer; But a sweet promise both may bring, And thine is sweet, thou glad new comer ! Thy twittering voice, thy pinions light, That glance, and glide with fleetest motion, Unwearied, though but yesternight They buoyed thee o'er the wide-spread ocean, A welcome promise bring once more Till gazing on thee wheeling near, The summer bird, or vernal blossom. The blossom brought a promise sweet, And I will joy, though pinions fleet Too aptly? Nay, that word recall: If pleasant summer days were all, Or mark the swift-winged foreigner Again; and check each thought of sadness: All here may fade; it grieves not her: She knows another land of gladness. T. Davis CCXXVIII THE LOSS OF THE FAVORITE THE HE skylark has perceived his prison door Unclosed; for liberty the captive tries: Puss eagerly hath watched him from the floor, And in her grasp he flutters, pants, and dies. Lucy's own puss, and Lucy's own dear bird, Her fostered favorites both for many a day, That which the tender-hearted girl preferred, She, in her fondness, knew not sooth to say. For if the skylark's pipe were shrill and strong, As winning, when she lay on Lucy's knees. Both knew her voice, and each alike would seek Her eye, her smile, her fondling touch to gain; How faintly then may words her sorrow speak, When by the one she sees the other slain. Come, Lucy, let me dry those tearful eyes; I will not warn thee not to set thine heart Too fondly upon perishable things; It is our nature's strong necessity, And this the soul's unerring instincts tell : Therefore I say, let us love worthily, Dear child, and then we cannot love too well. Better it is all losses to deplore Which dutiful affection can sustain, Than that the heart should, in its inmost core, This love which thou hast lavished, and the woe Which makes thy lip now quiver with distress, Are but a vent, an innocent o'erflow, From the deep springs of female tenderness. And something I would teach thee from the grief That thus has filled those gentle eyes with tears, The which may be thy sober, sure relief, When sorrow visits thee in after years. I ask not whither is the spirit flown That lit the eye which there in death is sealed; Our Father hath not made that mystery known; Needless the knowledge, therefore not revealed. But didst thou know in sure and sacred truth, |