And, though the chamber was black as night, I gazed in his eyes, and he shrieked in pain, Our bed is warm, and our grave is deep, 100 105 Robert Buchanan. CCXCV THE SANDS OF DEE. 'O Mary, go and call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, And call the cattle home, Across the sands of Dee;' The western wind was wild and dank with foam, 5 And all alone went she. The creeping tide crept up along the sand, And o'er and o'er the sand, And round and round the sand, As far as eye could see. The blinding mist came down, and hid the land: And never home came she. 'Oh! is it weed, or fish, or floating hair A tress of golden hair, A drowned maiden's hair, Above the nets at sea? Was never salmon yet that shone so fair IC They rowed her in across the rolling foam, The cruel crawling foam, The cruel hungry foam, To her grave beside the sea: But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home CCXCVI A DIRGE. Softly! she is lying Charles Kingsley. Whisper! she is going Gently she is sleeping, She has breathed her last : Gently! while you' are weeping, She to Heaven has past. CCXCVII Charles Gamage Eastman. DEATH AND LIFE. Her sufferings ended with the day! Yet lived she at its close, And breathed the long long night away But when the Sun in all his state She passed through glory's morning gate, James Aldrich. CCXCVIII TITHONUS. The woods decay, the woods decay and fall, Me only cruel immortality Consumes I wither slowly in thine arms, 5 A white-haired shadow roaming like a dream Far-folded mists, and gleaming halls of morn. Alas! for this gray shadow, once a man- 15 Then didst thou grant mine asking with a smile, But thy strong Hours indignant worked their wills, And though they could not end me, left me maimed 20 Immortal age beside immortal youth, And all I was, in ashes. Can thy love, Thy beauty, make amends, though even now, Close over us, the silver star, thy guide, 25 Shines in those tremulous eyes that fill with tears To hear me? Let me go: take back thy gift: To vary from the kindly race of men, Or pass beyond the goal of ordinance 30 Where all should pause, as is most meet for all? A soft air fans the cloud apart; there comes A glimpse of that dark world where I was born. From thy pure brows, and from thy shoulders pure, 35 Thy cheek begins to redden through the gloom, Which love thee, yearning for thy yoke, arise, 40 Lo! ever thus thou growest beautiful Why wilt thou ever scare me with thy tears, Ay me! ay me! with what another heart 45 50 Changed with thy mystic change, and felt my blood 55 Yet hold me not for ever in thine East: 65 Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me, cold Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet CCXCIX 70 75 Alfred Tennyson. THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE. 'Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean: Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy Autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more. 'Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail, That brings our friends up from the underworld, 5 So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more. ΙΟ 'Ah, sad and strange as ́in dark summer dawns The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds The casement slowly grows a glimmering square; Alfred Tennyson. 15 20 |