Rare gems and things of death on fancy's shore,
Till Nature said “Enough.”

Who longest dreams,

Dreams not for ever; seeing day and night
And corporal feebleness divide his dreams,
And, on his elevate creations weigh

With hunger, cold, heat, darkness, weariness:

Else should we be like gods; else would the course
Of thought's free wheels, increased in speed and might,
By an eterne volution, oversweep

The heights of wisdom, and invade her depths:
So, knowing all things, should we have all power;
For is not Knowledge power? But mighty spells
Our operation sear; the Babel must,

Or ere it touch the sky, fall down to earth ;

The web, half formed, must tumble from our hands,
And, ere they can resume it, lie decayed.
Mind struggles vainly from the flesh. E'en so,
Hell's angel (saith a scroll apocryphal)

Shall, when the latter days of earth have shrunk
Before the blast of God, affect his heaven;
Lift his scarred brow, confirm his rebel heart,
Shoot his strong wings, and darken pole and pole,-
Till day be blotted into night; and shake

The fevered clouds, as if a thousand storms

Throbbed into life! Vain hope-vain strength-vain flight! God's arm shall meet God's foe, and hurl him back!

A VISION OF LIFE AND DEATH.

MINE ears were deaf to melody,
My lips were dumb to sound :
Where didst thou wander, O my soul,
When ear and tongue were bound?

"I wandered by the stream of time,
Made dark by human tears:
I threw my voice upon the waves,

And they did throw me theirs."

And how did sound the waves, my soul?

And how did sound the waves?

"Hoarse, hoarse, and wild !—they ever dashed 'Gainst ruined thrones and graves."

And what sight on the shore, my soul?
And what sight on the shore?
"Twain beings sate there silently,
And sit there evermore."

"One was yclothed in mourning vest, And one, in trappings vain.

"She in the trappings vain, was fair,
And eke fantastical :

A thousand colours dyed her garb ;
A blackness bound them all.

"In part her hair was gaily wreathed, In part was wildly spread :

Her face did change its hue too fast,

To say 'twas pale or red.

"And when she looked on earth, I thought

She smiled for very glee:

But when she looked to heaven, I knew
That tears stood in her ee.

"She held a mirror, there to gaze :
It could no cheer bestow;

For while her beauty cast the shade,
Her breath did make it go.

"A harper's harp did lie by her,
Without the harper's hest;
A monarch's crown did lie by her
Wherein an owl had nest :

"A warrior's sword did lie by her,

Grown rusty since the fight;
A poet's lamp did lie by her :-
Ah me !—where was its light?”

And what didst thou say, O my soul,
Unto that mystic dame?

"I asked her of her tears, and eke
I asked her of her name.

"She said, she built a prince's throne .
She said, he ruled the grave;

And that the levelling worm asked not
If he were king or slave.

"She said, she formed a godlike tongue,
Which lofty thoughts unsheathed ;
Which rolled its thunder round, and purged
The air the nations breathed.

"She said, that tongue, all eloquent, With silent dust did mate;

Whereon false friends betrayed long faith,

And foes outspat their hate.

"She said, she warmed a student's heart,
But heart and brow 'gan fade :

Alas, alas! those Delphic trees
Do cast an upas shade!

She said, she lighted happy hearths,
Whose mirth was all forgot :
She said, she tunèd marriage bells,
Which rang when love was not.

"She said, her name was Life; and then
Out laughed and wept aloud,-
What time the other being strange
Lifted the veiling shroud.

"Yea! lifted she the veiling shroud,
And breathed the icy breath;
Whereat, with inward shuddering,
I knew her name was Death.

"Yea! lifted she her calm, calm brow, Her clear cold smile on me: Whereat within my deepness, leaped Mine immortality.

"She told me, it did move her smile,
To witness how I sighed,
Because that what was fragile brake,
And what was mortal died:

"As if that kings could grasp the earth, Who from its dust began;

As if that suns could shine at night,
Or glory dwell with man.

"She told me, she had freed his soul,

Who aye did freedom love;

Who now recked not, were worms below,

Or ranker worms above!

"She said, the student's heart had beat Against its prison dim;

Until she crushed the bars of flesh,

And poured truth's light on him.

"She said, that they who left the hearth, For aye in sunshine dwell;

She said, the funeral tolling brought
More joy than marriage bell!

"And as she spake, she spake less loud; The stream resounded more:

Anon I nothing heard but waves,

That wailed along the shore."

And what didst thou say, O my soul,
Upon that mystic strife?

"I said, that Life was only Death,
That only Death was Life.”

EARTH.

How beautiful is earth! my starry thoughts
Look down on it from their unearthly sphere,
And sing symphonious-Beautiful is earth!
The lights and shadows of her myriad hills;
The branching greenness of her myriad woods;
Her sky-affecting rocks; her zoning sea;
Her rushing, gleaming cataracts; her streams
That race below, the wingèd clouds on high ;
Her pleasantness of vale and meadow!-

Hush!

Meseemeth through the leafy trees to ring
A chime of bells to falling waters tuned;
Whereat comes heathen Zephyrus, out of breath
With running up the hills, and shakes his hair
From off his gleesome forehead, bold and glad
With keeping blythe Dan Phœbus company;-
And throws him on the grass, though half afraid ;
First glancing round, lest tempests should be nigh;
And lays close to the ground his ruddy lips,
And shapes their beauty into sound, and calls
On all the petalled flowers, that sit beneath
In hiding-places from the rain and snow,
To loosen the hard soil, and leave their cold
Sad idlesse, and betake them up to him.
They straightway hear his voice-

A thought did come. And press from out my soul the heathen dream. Mine eyes were purgèd. Straightway did I bind Round me the garment of my strength, and heard Nature's death-shrieking-the hereafter cry, When he o' the lion voice, the rainbow-crowned, Shall stand upon the mountains and the sea,