SONGS. Absent still! Ah! come and bless me! I will this dreary blank of absence make 283 A noble task-time; and will therein strive To follow excellence, and to o'ertake More good than I have won since yet I live. So may this doomed time build up in me A thousand graces, which shall thus be thine; So may my love and longing hallowed be, And thy dear thought an influence divine. FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE. THE GROOMSMAN TO HIS MISTRESS. I. EVERY wedding, says the proverb, Makes another, soon or late; Never yet was any marriage Entered in the book of Fate, But the names were also written Of the patient pair that wait. II. Blessings then upon the morning III. While the priest fulfilled his office, Aimed their glances at the bride; But the groomsmen eyed the virgins Who were waiting at her side. For thee I will arouse my thoughts to try All heavenward flights, all high and holy strains; For thy dear sake I will walk patiently Through these long hours, nor call their minutes pains. IV. Three there were that stood beside her; Save her Arab eyes and hair; How delicious is the winning Yet, remember, 'midst your wooing, Love has bliss, but Love has rueing; Other smiles may make you fickle; Tears for other charms may trickle. Love he comes, and Love he tarries, Bind the sea to slumber stilly; Bind its odor to the lily; Bind the aspen ne'er to quiver; Then bind Love to last for ever! THOMAS CAMPBELL CRABBED AGE AND YOUTH. CRABBED Age and Youth Cannot live together: Youth is full of pleasance, Age is full of care; Youth like summer morn, Age like winter weather; Youth like Summer brave, Age like Winter bare. Youth is full of sport, Age's breath is short; Youth is nimble, Age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, Age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and Age is tame. O, my love, my love is young! O, sweet shepherd! hie thee, For methinks thou stay'st too long. SHAKESPEARE FLY NOT YET. FLY not yet 't is just the hour And maids who love the moon! 'T was but to bless these hours of shade That beauty and the moon were made; 'Tis then their soft attractions glowing Set the tides and goblets flowing! O! stay,-O! stay, Joy so seldom weaves a chain NATURA NATURANS. BESIDE me,—in the car,—she sat; She spake not, no, nor looked to me. From her to me, from me to her, What passed so subtly, stealthily? Its interchanged aroma flings; Beside me, nought but this!--but this, That influent; as within me dwelt Her life; mine too within her breast, Her brain, her every limb, she felt. We sat; while o'er and in us, more And more, a power unknown prevailed. Inhaling and inhaled,—and still 'T was one, inhaling or inhaled. Beside me, nought but this; and passed- If black, or brown, or lucid-gray As hers, whose life was in me then. As unsuspecting mere a maid— As fresh in maidhood's bloomiest bloom In casual second-class did e'er By casual youth her seat assume; Unowning then, confusing soon With dreamier dreams that o'er the glass Of shyly ripening woman-sense Reflected, scarce reflected, passA wife may be, a mother, she In Hymen's shrine recalls not now She first in hour, ah, not profane! With me to Hymen learnt to bow. Ah no!-yet owned we, fused in one, The Power which, e'en in stones and earths By blind elections felt, in forms Organic breeds to myriad births; |