THE Day was dying; his breath
Wavered away in a hectic gleam;

And I said, if Life 's a dream, and Death
And Love and all are dreams-I'll dream.

A mist came over the bay

Like as a dream would over an eye.

The mist was white and the dream was grey
And both contained a human cry,

66

The burthen whereof was Love,"

And it filled both mist and dream with pain,
And the hills below and the skies above
Were touched and uttered it back again.

The mist broke down the rift

A kind ray shot from a holy star.

Then my dream did waver and break and lift-
Through it, O Love, shone thy face, afar.

So Boyhood sets: comes Youth,
A painful night of mists and dreams;
That broods till Love's exquisite truth,

The star of a morn-clear manhood, beams.

BOYKIN'S BLUFF, VIRGINIA, 1863.

THE WEDDING.

O MARRIAGE-BELLS, your clamor tells
Two weddings in one breath.
She marries whom her love compels :
-And I wed Goodman Death!

My brain is blank, my tears are red;
Listen, O God :-" I will," he said :—
And I would that I were dead.

Come groomsman Grief and bridesmaid Pain
Come and stand with a ghastly twain.

My Bridegroom Death is come o'er the meres
To wed a bride with bloody tears.
Ring, ring, O bells, full merrily:
Life-bells to her, death-bells to me :

O Death, I am true wife to thee!

MACON, GEORGIA, 1865.

THE PALM AND THE PINE.

FROM THE GERMAN OF HEINE.

IN the far North stands a Pine-tree, lone,

Upon a wintry height;

It sleeps

around it snows have thrown

A covering of white.

SPRING GREETING.

FROM THE GERMAN OF HERDER.

ALL faintly through my soul to-day,

As from a bell that far away

Is tinkled by some frolic tay,

Floateth a lovely chiming.

Thou magic bell, to many a fell
And many a winter-saddened dell
Thy tongue a tale of Spring doth tell,
Too passionate-sweet for rhyming.

Chime out, thou little song of Spring,
Float in the blue skies ravishing.
Thy song-of-life a joy doth bring
That's sweet, albeit fleeting.

Float on the Spring-winds e'en to my home:
And when thou to a rose shalt come

That hath begun to show her bloom,

Say, I send her greeting!

POINT LOOKOUT PRISON, 1864.

THE TOURNAMENT.

JOUST FIRST.

I.

BRIGHT shone the lists, blue bent the skies, And the knights still hurried amain

To the tournament under the ladies' eyes, Where the jousters were Heart and Brain.

II.

Flourished the trumpets: entered Heart,
A youth in crimson and gold.
Flourished again : Brain stood apart,
Steel-armored, dark and cold.

III.

Heart's palfrey caracoled gayly round,
Heart tra-li-ra'd merrily;

But Brain sat still, with never a sound,

So cynical-calm was he.

IV.

Heart's helmet-crest bore favors three

From his lady's white hand caught; While Brain wore a plumeless casque; not he Or favor gave or sought.