Even as a miser counts his gold,

Those hours the ancient timepiece told,

From that chamber, clothed in white,

The bride came forth on her wedding night;

There, in that silent room below,

The dead lay in his shroud of snow ;
And in the hush that followed the prayer,

Was heard the old clock on the stair, -
"Forever - never!

Never forever!"

All are scattered now and fled,
Some are married, some are dead;
And when I ask, with throbs of pain,
"Ah! when shall they all meet again?"
As in the days long since gone by,
The ancient timepiece makes reply,-
"Forever- never!

Never here, forever there,

Where all parting, pain, and care,
And death, and time shall disappear,-

Forever there, but never here!

The horologe of Eternity

Sayeth this incessantly,― "Forever-never!

Never forever!"

THE ARROW AND THE SONG

I

SHOT an arrow into the air,

It fell to earth, I knew not where ;

For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found again in the heart of a friend.

SONNETS