IN THE BELFRY.

WRITTEN UNDER RETHEL'S " 'DEATH, THE FRIEND.

"OLL! Is it night, or daylight yet?

TOLL!

Somewhere the birds seem singing still,

Though surely now the sun has set.

Toll! But who tolls the Bell once more?
He must have climbed the parapet.
Did I not bar the belfry door?

Who can it be?—the Bernardine,
That used to pray with me of yore?
No, for the monk was not so lean.

This must be He who, legend saith,
Comes sometimes with a kindlier mien
And tolls a knell.-This shape is Death!

Good-bye, old Bell! So let it be.

How strangely now I draw my breath!
What is this haze of light I see? ..

IN MANUS TUAS, DOMINE!

ARS VICTRIX.

(IMITATED FROM THEOPHILE Gautier.)

YES; when the ways oppose—

YES

When the hard means rebel,

Fairer the work out-grows,—
More potent far the spell.

O Poet, then, forbear

The loosely-sandalled verse,
Choose rather thou to wear

The buskin-strait and terse;

Leave to the tiro's hand

The limp and shapeless style;

See that thy form demand

The labour of the file.

Sculptor, do thou discard

The yielding clay,-consign

To Paros marble hard

The beauty of thy line ;

Model thy Satyr's face

For bronze of Syracuse ;

In the veined agate trace
The profile of thy Muse.

Painter, that still must mix

But transient tints anew, Thou in the furnace fix

The firm enamel's hue;

Let the smooth tile receive
Thy dove-drawn Erycine;
Thy Sirens blue at eve

Coiled in a wash of wine.

All passes. ART alone

Enduring stays to us;

The Bust out-lasts the throne,-The Coin, Tiberius;

Even the gods must go ;

Only the lofty Rhyme

Not countless years o'erthrow,Not long array of time.

Paint, chisel, then, or write;

But, that the work surpass, With the hard fashion fight,With the resisting mass.

ESSAYS IN OLD FRENCH FORMS.

"They are a school to win

The fair French daughter to learn English in ;
And, graced with her song,

To make the language sweet upon her tongue."

BEN JONSON, Underwoods.

F