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Oh! that we two sat dreaming

On the sward of some sheep-trimmed down,
Watching the white mist steaming

Over river and mead and town.

Oh! that we two lay sleeping

In our nest in the churchyard sod,

With our limbs at rest on the quiet earth's breast,

And our souls at home with God!

Charles Kingsley [1819-1875]

TWICE

I TOOK my heart in my hand
(O my love, O my love),
I said: Let me fall or stand,
Let me live or die,

But this once hear me speak

(O my love, O my love)— Yet a woman's words are weak; You should speak, not I.

You took my heart in your hand
With a friendly smile,

With a critical eye you scanned,

Then set it down,

And said, "It is still unripe,

Better wait awhile;

Wait while the skylarks pipe,

Till the corn grows brown."

As you set it down it broke-
Broke, but I did not wince;
I smiled at the speech you spoke,
At your judgment I heard:
But I have not often smiled

Since then, nor questioned since,
Nor cared for cornflowers wild,

Nor sung with the singing bird.

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WHEN Jessie comes with her soft breast,

And yields the golden keys,

Then is it as if God caressed

Twin babes upon His knees—

Twin babes that, each to other pressed,

Just feel the Father's arms, wherewith they both are blessed.

But when I think if we must part,

And all this personal dream be fled

O then my heart! O then my useless heart!

Would God that thou wert dead

A clod insensible to joys and ills—

A stone remote in some bleak gully of the hills! Thomas Edward Brown [1830-1897]

THE CHESS-BOARD

My little love, do you remember,
Ere we were grown so sadly wise,
Those evenings in the bleak December,
Curtained warm from the snowy weather,
When you and I played chess together,
Checkmated by each other's eyes?

Ah! still I see your soft white hand Hovering warm o'er Queen and Knight; Brave Pawns in valiant battle stand; The double Castles guard the wings; The Bishop, bent on distant things, Moves, sliding, through the fight.

Our fingers touch; our glances meet,
And falter; falls your golden hair

Against my cheek; your bosom sweet
Is heaving. Down the field, your Queen
Rides slow, her soldiery all between,
And checks me unaware.

Ah me! the little battle's done:

Dispersed is all its chivalry.

Full many a move, since then, have we

'Mid Life's perplexing chequers made,
And many a game with Fortune played;—
What is it we have won?

This, this at least,-if this alone:

That never, never, never more,
As in those old still nights of yore
(Ere we were grown so sadly wise),
Can you and I shut out the skies,

Aux Italiens

Shut out the world and wintry weather,
And, eyes exchanging warmth with eyes,
Play chess, as then we played together!

869

Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton [1831-1891]

AUX ITALIENS

Ar Paris it was, at the Opera there;—

And she looked like a queen in a book that night,
With the wreath of pearl in her raven hair,
And the brooch on her breast, so bright.

Of all the operas that Verdi wrote,

The best, to my taste, is the Trovatore; And Mario can soothe with a tenor note The souls in Purgatory.

The moon on the tower slept soft as snow:

And who was not thrilled in the strangest way, As we heard him sing, while the gas burned low, "Non ti scordar di me"?

The Emperor there, in his box of state,
Looked grave, as if he had just then seen

The red flag wave from the city-gate

Where his eagles in bronze had been.

The Empress, too, had a tear in her eye.

You'd have said that her fancy had gone back again, For one moment, under the old blue sky,

To the old glad life in Spain.

Well! there in our front-row box we sat,
Together, my bride-betrothed and I;
My gaze was fixed on my opera-hat,
And hers on the stage hard by.

And both were silent, and both were sad.
Like a queen she leaned on her full white arm,

With that regal, indolent air she had;

So confident of her charm!

I have not a doubt she was thinking then

Of her former lord, good soul that he was! Who died the richest and roundest of men, The Marquis of Carabas.

I hope that, to get to the kingdom of heaven,
Through a needle's eye he had not to pass.
I wish him well, for the jointure given
To my lady of Carabas.

Meanwhile, I was thinking of my first love,

As I had not been thinking of aught for years, Till over my eyes there began to move Something that felt like tears.

I thought of the dress that she wore last time,
When we stood, 'neath the cypress-trees, together,
In that lost land, in that soft clime,

In the crimson evening weather;

Of that muslin dress (for the eve was hot),
And her warm white neck in its golden chain,
And her full, soft hair, just tied in a knot,
And falling loose again;

And the jasmine-flower in her fair young breast,
(O the faint, sweet smell of that jasmine-flower!)
And the one bird singing alone to his nest,
And the one star over the tower.

I thought of our little quarrels and strife,
And the letter that brought me back my ring.
And it all seemed then, in the waste of life,
Such a very little thing!

For I thought of her grave below the hill,
Which the sentinel cypress-tree stands over;
And I thought . . . ".
"were she only living still,
How I could forgive her, and love her!"

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