II.

Can I teach thee, my beloved,-Can I teach thee?
If I said, Go left or right,

The counsel would be light,—

The wisdom, poor of all that could enrich thee.
My right would show like left;

My raising would depress thee,—

My choice of light would blind thee,—
Of way, would leave behind thee-

Of end, would leave bereft.

Alas! I can but bless thee

May GOD teach thee, my beloved,—may GOD teach thee!

III.

Can I bless thee, my beloved,-Can. I bless thee?
What blessing word can I

From mine own tears keep dry?

What flowers grow in my field wherewith to dress thee?
My good reverts to ill;

My calmnesses would move thee,—
My softnesses would prick thee,-
My bindings up would break thee,-
My crownings, curse and kill.

Alas! I can but love thee

May God bless thee, my beloved,—may God bless thee!

.IV.

Can I love thee, my beloved,-can I love thee?
And is this like love, to stand

With no help in my hand,

When strong as death I fain would watch above thee? My love-kiss can deny

No tear that falls beneath it:

Mine oath of love can swear thee
From no ill that comes near thee,-
And thou diest while I breathe it,

And I-I can but die!

May God love thee, my beloved,-may GOD love thee!

LESSONS FROM THE GORSE

"To win the secret of a weed's plain heart."

LOWELL.

I.

MOUNTAIN gorses, ever golden,
Cankered not the whole year long!
ye teach us to be strong,

Do

Howsoever pricked and holden,
Like your thorny blooms, and so
Trodden on by rain and snow,

Up the hill-side of this life, as bleak as where ye grow?

II.

Mountain blossoms, shining blossoms!
Do ye teach us to be glad,

When no summer can be had,
Blooming in our inward bosoms?

Ye, whom God preserveth still,
Set as lights upon a hill,

Tokens to the wintry earth, that Beauty liveth still!

III.

Mountain gorses, do ye teach us
From that academic chair

Canopied with azure air,

That the wisest word man reaches
Is the humblest he can speak ?

Ye, who live on mountain peak,

Yet live low along the ground, beside the grasses meek!

IV.

Mountain gorses, since Linnæus
Knelt beside you on the sod,
For your beauty thanking God,-

For your teaching, ye should see us

Bowing in prostration new.

Whence arisen,-if one or two

Drops be on our cheeks-O world! they are not tears, but dew.

THE LADY'S YES.

"YES," I answered you last night; | Wooer light makes fickle troth~

"No," this morning, sir, I say. Colours seen by candle-light, Will not look the same by day.

When the viols played their best,
Lamps above, and laughs be-
low-

Love me sounded like a jest,
Fit for Yes or fit for No.

Call me false, or call me free—
Vow, whatever light may shine,
No man on your face shall see

Any grief for change on mine.

Yet the sin is on us both—

Time to dance is not to woo--

Scorn of me recoils on you.

Learn to win a lady's faith

Nobly, as the thing is high; Bravely, as for life and death-With a loyal gravity.

Lead her from the festive boards,
Point her to the starry skies,
Guard her, by your truthful words,

Pure from courtship's flatteries

By your truth she shall be true-
Ever true, as wives of yore-
And her Yes, once said to you,
SHALL be Yes for evermore.

A WOMAN'S SHORTCOMINGS.

I.

SHE has laughed as softly as if she sighed ;
She has counted six and over,

Of a purse well filled, and a heart well tried--
Oh, each a worthy lover!

They "give her time;" for her soul must slip
Where the world has set the grooving:
She will lie to none with her fair red lip-
But love seeks truer loving.

II.

She trembles her fan in a sweetness dumb,
As her thoughts were beyond recalling;
With a glance for one, and a glance for some,
From her eyelids rising and falling.
---Speaks common words with a blushful air;
Hears bold words, unreproving:

But her silence says-what she never will swear-
And love seeks better loving,

III.

Go, lady! lean to the night-guitar,
And drop a smile to the bringer;
Then smile as sweetly, when he is far.
At the voice of an in-door singer!
Bask tenderly beneath tender eyes;
Glance lightly, on their removing,
And join new vows to old perjuries-
But dare not call it loving!

IV.

Unless you can think, when the song is done.

No other is soft in the rhythm;

Unless you can feel, when left by One,

That all men beside go with him;

Unless you can know, when unpraised by his breath.

That your beauty itself wants proving;

Unless you can swear-" For life, for death!

Oh, fear to call it loving!

V.

Unless you can muse in a crowd all day,
On the absent face that fixed you ;
Unless you can love, as the angels may,
With the breadth of heaven betwixt you;
Unless you can dream that his faith is fast,
Through behoving and unbehoving ;
Unless you can die when the dream is past---
Oh, never call it loving!

I.

A MAN'S REQUIREMENTS.

LOVE me, sweet, with all thou art,
Feeling, thinking, seeing,-
Love me in the lightest part,
Love me in full being.

II.

Love me with thy open youth
In its frank surrender;
With the vowing of thy mouth,
With its silence tender.

He listened at the porch that day

To hear the wheel go on, and on,

And then it stopped-ran back away

While through the door he brought the sun :
But now my spinning is all done.

II.

He sate beside me, with an oath

That love ne'er ended, once begun ;

I smiled-believing for us both,
What was the truth for only one:
And now my spinning is all done.