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ROBERT BURNS WILSON.

ROBERT BURNS WILSON was born near Wash

ington, Pa., on the farm of his paternal grandfather, but the family removed within a few months to West Virginia, where his childhood was passed. His mother, from whom he, in a measure, inherited his genius, and who seems to have been the ideal mother of a poet and painter, was his inseparable companion; and her death, by consumption, when he was only ten years old, was a bitter grief to the sensitive child, and changed his whole life.

His affections were with the woods and fields, and when, a few years later, he was sent to Wheeling to school he felt so keenly the change from these beloved companions to the brick and mortar, smoke and dust of a city, that to this day, he says, the sound of bells, usually so suggestive to a poetic mind, is disagreeable to him from association with those first months of misery. After some years at school in Wheeling, and afterwards in Pittsburgh, he settled in the latter place, when about nineteen years old, to begin his artistic labors. Although he had been drawing all his life, his first professional effort was a life-size crayon portrait, which proved a complete success.

About fourteen years ago he embarked with a friend on a canoe voyage down the Ohio River. After some weeks of this adventure, they found themselves one morning stranded in a strange land, near Caseyville, Ky., with their boat and all their belongings stolen. In this unfortunate state of affairs the friend returned to the East, and Mr. Wilson, after some hesitation, cast in his lot with Kentucky. He went first to Louisville for a year or two, where he pursued his profession as a painter, gaining much reputation, also, by a crayon likeness of Mr. Watterson, editor of the Courier-Journal.

About twelve years ago he went to Frankfort, Ky., on the invitation of a friend, and was so pleased with its beautiful and romantic surroundings that he has ever since made it his home. He painted a good many portraits in oil and watercolors for the first few years, much to the satisfaction of the subjects. But the sister spirit of poetry in his nature struggled for utterance, and he began to write the poems which have made his reputation. His first poem published was "A Wild Violet in November," which appeared in the Chicago Current. This was followed by others, which were promptly accepted by the leading magazines, and he at once took rank with the first poets of the South.

Mr. Wilson is most truly the poet of Nature. He has loved and studied her in all her manifestations,

in all seasons, and at all hours. His pen, like his brush, can reproduce not only the color, the light, the form, but the underlying spirit of truth and beauty, which consecrates and animates the whole. In person, Mr. Wilson is tall, over six feet in height, rather slender, but muscular; and he would be noticeable in any assembly by his marked individuality. He is unmarried, but has hosts of friends in the little city of his adoption, whose pride in his fame was strikingly evinced by the sale in Frankfort of nearly three hundred copies of his first book in the first few days of its appearance.

M. A. B.

IF ONE COULD EASE AN ACHING HEART.
If one could ease an aching heart

By breathing of the mountain air,
Or woo the wary soul to part
A little from the path of care,
A little from the beaten road
To turn away-an hour of grace
To lay aside life's dreary load

In some forgetful resting place;
To turn and leave the dust and heat,

The common highway of mankind,
Where all the plodding, weary feet

Tread down the dust of death- to find, But once, some dewy, cool retreat,

In which the fevered heart and mind
Might put their burdens down, and meet
Some dream long lost, some hope resigned,
Some joy at once complete :-

If one could lose Love's vain regret
By gazing on the shining sea,
Or still the trembling chords that fret,
By wandering on the upland lea,
Or find some balm and comfort yet
In hope of better things to be;
If pale Remembrance did not halt
To take each faded garland up,
Nor dropped her tears, remorseful salt,
To mar the taste of Pleasure's cup;
If fickle Fortune's luring smile

Did not foretell her darkening frown,
And if her touch did not beguile

The temples with a tinsel crown:

If there were never maddening sneer
On Fame's proud-smiling lips of scorn,
To mock the daring soul with fear,
And leave the broken clay forlorn;
If sweet Religion did not grow
To be a blind and poisoned thing,
That taints with death the limpid flow

Of waiting love-which it were death to shun-
Persuade thy clasp. Now hath the Earth begun
To loose her robes of mist; with mock alarms
She yields her beauty, which love's longing warms,
Forestalling the embrace thy kiss hath won.
Arise, great god of light and life; arise,

Enfold the fond Earth in the deathless glowing Of thy fierce love; bend from the shimmering skies Which burn before thee in thine onward going. No cheer have we and not of thy bestowing: Thou art the joy of all hope-lifted eyes.

SUNSET.

Within thy burning palace in the West
Thou art awhile withdrawn. Yet doth thy face
Look from the closing portal for a space
Back to the Earth, which thy dear love hath blessed;
While she with tears and soft sighs half-repressed
Beholds thee sinking in thy resting-place,
As with up-gathered folds of dewy lace
She hugs remembrance to her yearning breast.
Thy glory darkens, and the careful night
Hangs out the moon's pale lamp while yet the flush
On Evening's face-with thy departing light-
Turns from rose-pink to crimson, till the blush
Dies with the coming stars, and slumber's hush
Wraps thy warm bride, who waits thy waking
might.

WOULD WE RETURN?

WOULD we return

If once the gates which close upon the past

Were opened wide for us, and if the dear Remembered pathway stretched before us, clear, To lead us back to youth's lost land at last; Whereon life's April shadows lightly cast, Recalled the old sweet day of childish fear

With all their faded hopes, and brought anear The far-off streams in which our skies were glassed;

Did these lost dreams which wake the soul's sad yearning

But live once more and waited our returning,
Would we return?

Would we return

If love's enchantment held the heart no more And we had come to count the wild, sweet pain, The fond distress, the lavish tears-but vain; Had cooled the heart's hot wounds amidst the

roar

Of mountain gales, or, on some alien shore Worn out the soul's long anguish, and had slain At last the dragon of despair-if then the train

Of vanished years came back, and, as of yore, The same voice called, and, with soft eyes beguiling,

Our lost love beckoned, through time's gray veil smiling,

LOVE

Life is not bounded by fixed rules of art;

If love hath vanished, what is worth the gaining? -Ibid.

SORROW.

Do I remember? Ask me not again:

My heart hath but one passion-to forget. Oh! is there nothing in the wide world, then, To take away but once the soul's regret! Alas! for love is ever more divine;

Immortal is the sorrow love must bring; The golden cup aches for withholden wine;

Of sun-kissed flight still dreams the broken wing; The buried jewel seeketh yet to shine,

And music's spirit haunts the idle string; So doth the heart in sadness ever twine

Some fading wreath that keeps hope lingering. -Constance.