NLY when Summer's sun is high,

And the blue is broad in the summer sky,

The shadows on the dial face

Tell of day's race.

Only when so we sit together,

And loving eyes make pleasant weather,

Live I-my soul in sunny blisses

Counts life by kisses.

EDWIN ARNOLD.

H

A KISS.

I.

WEET mouth! Oh let me take

One draught from that delicious cup!
The hot Sahara-thirst to slake

That burns me up!

II.

Sweet breath! all flowers that are,

Within that darling frame must bloom;

My heart revives so at the rare

Divine perfume!

III.

Nay, 'tis a dear deceit,

A drunkard's cup that mouth of thine ;
Sure poison-flowers are breathing, sweet,

That fragrance fine!

IV.

I drank the drink betrayed me

Into a madder, fiercer fever;

The scent of those love-blossoms made me
More faint than ever.

V.

Yet though quick death it were That rich heart-vintage I must drain, And quaff that hidden garden's air, Again-again!

ALFRED DOMETT.

THE MOUNTAIN FIR.

HEY sat beneath the mountain fir,
Beneath the evening sun;

With all his soul he looked at her-
And so was love begun.

The tit-mice blue in fluttering flocks
Caressed the fir-tree spray;
And far below, through rifted rocks,
The river went its way.

As stars in heavenly waters swim,
Her eyes of azure shone ;

With all her soul she looked at him

And so was love led on.

The squirrel sported on the bough,
And chuckled in his play;

Above the distant mountain's brow
A golden glory lay.

The fir-tree breathed its balsam balm,
With heather scents united;

The happy skies were hushed in calm—
And so the troth was plighted.

EARL OF SOUTHESK.