Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place

O, to abide in the desert with thee!

Wild is thy lay, and loud,

For, in the downy cloud,

Love gives it energy, love gave

it birth,

Where, on thy dewy wing,

Where art thou journeying?

Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.

O'er fell and fountain sheen,

O'er moor and mountain green,

O'er the red streamers that herald the day, Over the cloudlet dim,

Over the rainbow's rim,

Musical cherub, soar, singing, away.

Then when the gloaming comes,

Low in the heather blooms

Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be! Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place

O to abide in the desert with thee!

O BLITHE new-comer! I have heard
I hear thee and rejoice;

O Cuckoo! shall I call thee bird,

Or but a wandering voice?

While I am lying on the grass,

The twofold shout I hear,

That seems to fill the whole air's space, As loud far off as near.

Though babbling only to the vale,
Of sunshine and of flowers,

Thou bringest unto me a tale
Of visionary hours.

Thrice welcome, darling of the spring!

Even yet thou art to me

No bird! but an invisible thing,

A voice, a mystery.

The same, whom in my school-boy days I listen'd to: that cry

Which made me look a thousand ways, In bush, and tree, and sky.

To seek thee did I often rove

Though woods and on the green : And thou wert still a hope, a love; Still long'd for, never seen.

And I can listen to thee yet,
Can lie upon the plain,
And listen till I do beget

That golden time again.

TO THE OWL.

OWL! that lovest the boding sky;

In the murky air,

What sawest thou there?

For I heard, through the fog, thy screaming!

And red were the wings of the autumn sky;

But a redder gleam

Rose from the stream

That dabbled my feet, as I glided by!"

Owl! that lovest the stormy sky!

Speak, oh! speak!

What crimsoned thy beak,

And hung on the lids of thy staring eye?

""Twas blood, 'twas blood!

And it rose like a flood,

And for this I scream'd, as I glided by !"

Owl! that lovest the midnight sky!

Again, again,

Where are the twain ?

Look! while the moon is hurrying by!—

"In the thicket's shade

The one is laid,—

[eye!"

You may see, through the boughs, his moveless

Owl! that lovest the darken'd sky!

A step beyond,

From the silent pond

There rose a low and murmuring cry :"On the water's edge,

Through the trampled sedge,

A bubble burst, and gurgled by:
My eyes were dim,

But I look'd from the brim,

And I saw, in the weeds, a dead man lie!"

Owl! that lovest the moonless sky!
Where the casements blaze

With the faggot's rays,

Look! oh, look! what seest thou there?

Owl! what's this,

That snort and hiss,

And why do thy feathers shiver and stare ?—

"Tis he! 'tis he!

He sits 'mid the three,

And a breathless woman is on the stair!"