CL.

A CHARACTER-AND A QUESTION.

A DUBIOUS, strange, uncomprehended life,-
A roll of riddles with no answer found,-
A sea-like soul which plummet cannot sound
Torn by belligerent winds at mutual strife.
The god in him hath taken unto wife

A daughter of the pit, and-strongly bound By coils of snake-like hair about him woundDies straining hard to raise the severing knife.

For such a sunken soul what room in Heaven?
For such a soaring soul what place in Hell?
Can these desires be damned, these doings shriven
Or in some lone mid-region must he dwell
For ever? Lo! God sitteth with the seven

Stars in His hand, and shall not He judge well!

CLI.

ONLY A WOMAN'S HAIR.

"Only a woman's hair."-SWIFT.

"A special despatch in the 'Tagblatt,' states that Wagner's body was laid in the coffin by the widow herself, who, last night, cut off the beautiful hair her husband so admired and placed it in a red cushion under the head of the departed."—" Standard," Feb. 17th, 1883.

"ONLY a woman's hair!" We may not guess
If 'twere a mocking sneer or the sharp cry
Of a great heart's o'ermastering agony
That spake in these four words. Nevertheless,
One thing we know,—that the long clinging tress
Had lived with Stella's life in days gone by,
And, she being dead, lived on to testify

Of love's victorious everlastingness.

Such love, O mute musician, doth provide
For thy dear head's repose a pillow rare :
With red of heart's blood is the covering dyed,
And underneath-canst thou not feel it there ?-
The rippling wavy wealth that was thy pride,
Now love's last gift-only a woman's hair!

ULII.

THE RAINBOW.

THE raindrops shimmered down the beamy sky:

19

'Behold," one sang, "how gloriously bright The golden garments of the King of light!”"Golden! O drop, a beam is in thine eye!" A second cries; "His robe's of crimson dye.' "Ye both are blind," another shouts: "my sight Is clear, and with the purple veil of night Our monarch is arrayed in mystery."

Thus wrangling, shouting, hopeless to agree,
The drops shot swiftly down the headlong steep,
Until at last they fell into the sea.

When they arose from out the cold, dark deep, The sun sat throned in stainless majesty,

While down a cloud they saw the rainbow sweep.

CLIII.

BY THE SEA.

AH! wherefore do I haunt the shadowy tomb,
My joyless days and nights among the dead?
Know you not He, my radiant Sun, who fled
With hope uncertain, soothes yon awful gloom
Afar, upon the weltering sea's wan lead?
Behold! faint, tremulous, ghostly gleams illume
The unrevealing mystery of Doom,

Ashpale dumb wastes, impenetrably dead,
O'erwhelming purple incumbent o'er the coast.
Into the Presence-Chamber of dim Death

He hath been summoned ! and I hold my post Here on the threshold, thirsty for one breath Released from yonder ! leave me ! I love my night, More than abounding pulses of your light!

CLIV.

IN MEMORY OF F. C. C.

6th May 1882.

FAIR Soul, who in this faltering age did show
Manhood's true image, constant, courteous, pure,
In silence strong to do and to endure,
Neath self-suppression veiling inner glow,---
Justice at one with gentleness:-The throe
Of lightning-death found thee, if any, fit,—
Secure in Faith,—to bare thy breast to it:
Ah! Thine the joy, beloved,—ours the woe!
For thou hast ta'en thine innocence on high,
The child-simplicity of thy stainless years;
And on thy brows we see the diadem
Of those who walk with Christ in purity,

Fair souls, and wept, like thee, with lifelong tears
Sword-slain in Ephratean Bethlehem.