BIRD RAPTURES

The sunrise wakes the lark to sing, The moonrise wakes the nightingale. Come darkness, moonrise, everything That is so silent, sweet, and pale, Come, so ye wake the nightingale.

Make haste to mount, thou wistful moon,
Make haste to wake the nightingale :
Let silence set the world in tune

To hearken to that wordless tale
Which warbles from the nightingale.

O herald skylark, stay thy flight
One moment, for a nightingale
Floods us with sorrow and delight.
To-morrow thou shalt hoist the sail;
Leave us to-night the nightingale.

NOBLE SISTERS

"Now did you mark a falcon,

Sister dear, sister dear,
Flying toward my window

In the morning cool and clear?

With jingling bells about her neck,

But what beneath her wing?

It may have been a ribbon,

Or it may have been a ring."-
"I marked a falcon swooping

At the break of day:

And for your love, my sister-dove,
I 'frayed the thief away."—

"Or did you spy a ruddy hound,

Sister fair and tall,

Went snuffing round my garden bound,
Or crouched by my bower wall?
With a silken leash about his neck;
But in his mouth may be

A chain of gold and silver links,

Or a letter writ to me."

"I heard a hound, high-born sister,
Stood baying at the moon :

I rose and drove him from your wall
Lest you should wake too soon.".

"Or did you meet a pretty page

Sat swinging on the gate;
Sat whistling whistling like a bird,
Or may be slept too late :
With eaglets broidered on his cap,
And eaglets on his glove?

E

If you had turned his pockets out,

You had found some pledge of love.”— "I met him at this daybreak,

Scarce the east was red:

Lest the creaking gate should anger you,
I packed him home to bed."—

"Oh patience, sister. Did you see
A young man tall and strong,
Swift-footed to uphold the right
And to uproot the wrong,
Come home across the desolate sea
To woo me for his wife?

And in his heart my heart is locked,
And in his life my life."—

"I met a nameless man, sister,

Who loitered round our door:

I said: Her husband loves her much.
And yet she loves him more."——

"Fie, sister, fie! a wicked lie,

A lie, a wicked lie,

I have none other love but him,

Nor will have till I die.

And you have turned him from our door,

And stabbed him with a lie:

I will go seek him thro' the world

In sorrow till I die."

"Go seek in sorrow, sister,

And find in sorrow too:

If thus you shame our father's name
My curse go forth with you."

AT HOME

When I was dead, my spirit turned
To seek the much-frequented house :
I passed the door, and saw my friends

Feasting beneath green orange-boughs; From hand to hand they pushed the wine, They sucked the pulp of plum and peach; They sang, they jested, and they laughed, For each was loved of each.

I listened to their honest chat:

Said one: "To-morrow we shall be Plod plod along the featureless sands, And coasting miles and miles of sea. Said one: "Before the turn of tide

We will achieve the eyrie-seat." Said one: "To-morrow shall be like To-day, but much more sweet.”

"To-morrow," said they, strong with hope, And dwelt upon the pleasant way : "To-morrow," cried they one and all, While no one spoke of yesterday. Their life stood full at blessed noon; I, only I, had passed away : "To-morrow and to-day," they cried: I was of yesterday.

I shivered comfortless, but cast
No chill across the tablecloth;
I all-forgotten shivered, sad

To stay and yet to part how loth:
I passed from the familiar room,
I who from love had passed away,
Like the remembrance of a guest
That tarrieth but a day.

DREAM LAND

Where sunless rivers weep
Their waves into the deep,
She sleeps a charmèd sleep:
Awake her not.