She defies Rome's conquering legions!
Let them triumph in her fall!
What is earthly pomp or greatness?
Love, thy love outweighs it all!

Thrones and scepters are but trifles
To my spirit's yearning pain;
What were fortune's gifts witout thee
I would lose the world to gain?
Let no base heart tell our story;

Ages, speak, when time unurns
These dull ashes, say to Ages,

Soul to soul their love still burns.

Fatal asp, thy sleep's not endless,
That the morrow's dawn will prove:
I shall reign in lands Elysian,
Antony's proud Queen of Love!
Isis and Osiris, hear me!

Hear me, gods of boundless power!
Ye have tasted deathless passion!
Ye will guide me to his bower!
Pardon, mighty Ones, the error
If Octavia I have wronged,
Judged by higher laws supernal;
Ah! how earthly passions thronged;
Overpowering heart and reason,
Nature, answering Nature's call,
Rushed as cloud responsive rushes
On to cloud, to meet and-fall.
Antony, my love, I'm dying!
Curdles fast life's crimson tide,
But no dark Plutonian shadows
Fall between us to divide.
Hark! the Stygian waters swelling,
Call me, love, with thee to rest,-
Death I fear not since thou braved it,
Pillowed on my aching breast.
Strange emotions fill my bosom
As I near the vast unknown;
Yet my heart still throbs, in dying,
Antony, for thee alone.
Oh! "I feel immortal longings,”—
I can brave stern Pluto's frown,-
Robe me in my regal garments,
Deck with jewels, scepter, crown.
Antony! I'm coming! coming!
Open, open wide thine arms!
Ah! the blissful hope of union
Robs the grave of its alarms.
See! the glorious heroes beckon
O'er the Stygian waters' swell.
I shall have immortal crowning!
Egypt-dear old Nile!-farewell.

MRS. SARAH D. CLARKE.

SINGLE POEMS.

BE A WOMAN.

OFT I've heard a gentle mother,
As the twilight hours began,
Pleading with her son of duty,
Urging him to be a man;
But unto her blue-eyed daughter,

Though with love's words quite as ready, Urges she this other duty,

"Strive, my dear, to be a lady."
What's a lady? Is it something
Made of hoops and silks and airs,
Used to decorate the parlor,

Like the fancy mats and chairs?
Is it one who wastes on novels
Every feeling that is human?
If 't is this to be a lady,

'T is not this to be a woman.

Mother, then, unto your daughter
Speak of something higher far
Than to be mere fashion's lady-
Woman is the brightest star.

If you in your strong affection
Urge your son to be a true man,
Urge your daughter, no less strongly,
To arise and be a woman.

Yes, a woman-brightest model

Of that high and perfect beauty Where the mind and soul and body Blend, to work out life's great duty. Be a woman! Naught is higher

On the gilded list of fame; On the catalogue of virtue

There's no brighter, holier name.

Be a woman! On to duty!

Raise the world from all that's low;
Place high in the social heaven
Virtue's fair and radiant bow;

Lend thy influence to each effort
That shall raise our natures human;
Be not fashion's gilded lady,-

Be a brave, whole-souled, true woman!
-EDWARD BROOKS.

SUPPLICATION.

O LOVE Divine! lay on me burdens if Thou wilt, To break Thy faithless one-hour watchman's shameful sleep!

Turn comforts into awful prophets to my guilt! Close to Thy garden travail let me wake and

weep!

A MARRIAGE HYMN.

"From henceforth no more twain, but one,"
Yet ever one through being twain;
As self is ever lost and won

Through love's own ceaseless loss and gain;
And both their full perfection reach,
Each growing the full self through each.

Two in all worship, glad and high,

All promises to praise and prayer, "Where two are gathered, there am 1;"

Gone half the weight from all ye bear, Gained twice the force for all ye doThe ceaseless, sacred Church of two.

One in all lowly ministry,

One in all priestly sacrifice,

Through love which makes all service free,
And finds or makes all gifts of price,
All love which made life rich before,
Through this great central love grown more.

And so, together journeying on

To the Great Bridal of the Christ,
When all the life His love has won
To perfect love is sacrificed,
And the New Song beyond the Sun

Peals, "Henceforth no more twain, but one."

And in that perfect Marriage Day

All earth's lost love shall live once more; All lack and loss shall pass away,

And all find all not found before; Till all the worlds shall live and glow In that great love's great overflow.

MRS. ELIZABETH RUNDLE CHARLES.

EVELYN HOPE.

BEAUTIFUL Evelyn Hope is dead—

Sit and watch by her side an hour.

That is her book-shelf, this her bed;

She plucked that piece of geranium flower, Beginning to die, too, in the glass.

Little has yet been changed, I think— The shutters are shut, no light may pass, Save two long rays through the hinge's chink.

Sixteen years old when she died!

Pehaps she had scarely heard my nameIt was not her time to love; beside,

Her life had many a hope and aim, Duties enough and little cares,

And now was quiet, now astirTill God's hand beckoned unawares,

And the sweet white brow is all of her.

Is it too late, then, Evelyn Hope? What, your soul was pure and true, The good stars met in your horoscope, Made you of spirit, fire and dewAnd just because I was thrice as old,

115

And our paths in the world diverged so wide, Each was naught to each, must I be told? We were fellow mortals, naught beside?

No, indeed, for God above

Is great to grant, as mighty to make, And creates the love to reward the loveI claim you still, for my own love's sake! Delayed it may be for more lives yet, Through worlds I shall traverse, not a fewMuch is to learn and much to forget

Ere the time be come for taking you.

But the time will come-at last it will-
When, Evelyn Hope, what meant, I shall say,
In the lower earth, in the years long still,
That body and soul so pure and gay;
Why your hair was amber, I shall divine,

And your mouth of your own geranium's

red

And what you would do with me, in fine,

In the new life come in the old one's stead.

I have lived. I shall say, so much since then,
Given up myself so many times,
Gained me the gains of various men,
Ransacked the ages, spoiled the climes;
Yet one thing, one, in my soul's full scope,
Either I missed or itself missed me-
And I want to find you, Evelyn Hope!
What is the issue? Let us see:

I loved you, Evelyn, all the while;

My heart seemed full as it could holdThere was place and to spare for the frank young smile,

And the red young mouth, and the hair's

young gold.

So, hush, I will give you this leaf to keep;
See, I shut it inside the sweet, cold hand.
There, that is our secret; go to sleep;
You will wake, and remember, and under-
stand.
ROBERT BROWNING.

A CHILD'S LAUGH.

THE merry laugh of the laughing child,
"T is music sweet to hear,
Delights the soul from morn till night,
In accents loud and clear.

What the evil that shall perish
In its ray?

Aid the dawning, tongue and pen;
Aid it, hopes of honest men;
Aid it, paper-aid it, type-
Aid it, for the hour is ripe,

And our earnest must not slacken
Into play.

Men of thought and men of action,
Clear the way!

Lo! the cloud 's about to vanish
From the day;

And a brazen wrong to crumble
Into clay.

Lo! the Right's about to conquer,
Clear the way!

With the Right shall many more
Enter, smiling, at the door;
With the giant Wrong shall fall
Many others, great and small,
That for ages long have held us

For their prey.

Men of thought and men of action, Clear the way!

CHARLES MACKAY,

ASUNDER.

ONCE, when the sun; in slowly dying splendor,
Sank, sending crimson smiles across the sea;
When, in the twilight, eyes looked true and tender-
"Tell me," you said, “how great your love for
me."

Darker and darker grew the sea before us:
Turning, I saw a shadow at your side;
Mist filled the sky and hid the pale stars o'er us.
As those who speak in dreams my lips replied:
"Some measure love by gold,

By endless time, by soundless sea;

But I-I love you well enough

To leave you, love, if needs must be."

Words, thoughtless words! but breathing doubt forbidden;

Fears, foolish fears! that love must lull to rest— Not you or I knew then the meaning hidden, Veiled in those words you deemed an idle jest; Now, love! with paths divided, hands asunder, Now we have learned the meaning, you and I,

Hid in the misty sky, the dark sea under,

Hid in those words I spoke, and knew not why— "Some measure love by gold,

By endless time, by soundless sea;

But I-I love you well enough

To leave you, love, if needs must be."
HUGH CONWAY.

FLORENCE VANE.

I LOVED thee long and dearly,
Florence Vane.

My life's bright dream, and early,
Hath come again;

I renew in my fond vision
My heart's dear pain,
My hope, and thy derision,
Florence Vane.

The ruin lone and hoary,
The ruin old,

Where thou didst mark my story,
At even told, -

That spot-the hues Elysian

Of sky and plain

I treasure in my vision,
Florence Vane.

Thou wast lovelier than the roses

In their prime:

Thy voice excelled the closes

Of sweetest rhyme;

Thy heart was as a river
Without a main.

Would I had loved thee never,

Florence Vane.