SERENADE.

I.

LEEP, lady fair!

Oh but thy couch should be

The fleeciest cloudlet of the summer air,

The softest billow of the summer sea ;-
Or that unforsaken rest

I keep warm in my true breast,
For thee, for thee !

Dream, lady sweet!

II.

The moon and planets bright

Now thread thy slumbers with unsounding feet, Now drench thy fancies with unshaped delight:

As my spirit fain would steep Thine, when only half asleep, This night, this night!

III.

Wake, lady mine!

See! are awake the flowers,

Their opening cusps bright tipped with dewy wine, And, buoyed on song, the moist lark trills and towers. Wake! If thou must be away

Nightly, let at least the day

Be ours, be ours!

ALFRED AUSTIN,

AT HER WINDOW.

B

EATING heart! we come again

Where my Love reposes :

This is Mabel's window-pane ;

These are Mabel's roses.

Mabel will be deck'd anon,

Zoned in bride's apparel;

Happy zone!-oh hark to yon
Passion-shaken carol!

Sing thy song, thou trancèd thrush,
Pipe thy best, thy clearest ;-
Hush, her lattice moves, oh hush-

Dearest Mabel !—dearest . . .

FREDERICK LOCKER.

B

LOVE-LILY.

ETWEEN the hands, between the brows,
Between the lips of Love-Lily,

A spirit is born whose birth endows.

My blood with fire to burn through me;

Who breathes upon my gazing eyes,
Who laughs and murmurs in mine ear,
At whose least touch my colour flies,
And whom my life grows faint to hear.

Within the voice, within the heart,
Within the mind of Love-Lily,

A spirit is born who lifts apart

His tremulous wings and looks at me ;

Who on my mouth his finger lays,

And shows, while whispering lutes confer, That Eden of Love's watered ways

Whose winds and spirits worship her.