Beauty and Duty [pp. 418]

THE LADIES' REPOSITORY.
Yet I hear him as he sings,
Plunged in his bath of glory;
!Jnseen his quivering wings,
But heard his sweet love-story.
Bird of the earth and heaven,
Sweet sound of music flying,
On the tide of gladness driven
When the stars in light are dying
Sing on, thou happy voice,
In the peerless light above me,
Sing of thy brimming joys I love thee, O I love thee!
THE TWO WORLDS.
Two worlds there are. To one our eyes we strain,
Whose magic joys we shall not see again;
Bright haze of morning veils its glimmering shore.
Ah, truly breathed we there
Intoxicating air Glad were our hearts in that sweet realm of
Nevermore.
The lover there drank her delicious breath
Whose love has yielded since to change or death;
The mother kissed her child whose days are o'er.
Alas t too soon have fled
The irreclaimable dead;
We see them-visions strange-amid the
Nevermore.
The merry song some maiden used to singThe brown, brown hair that once was wont to cling
To temples long clay cold; to the very core
They strike our weary hearts,
As some vexed memory starts
From that long-faded land-the realm of
Nevermore:
It is perpetual Summer there. But here
Sadly we may remember rivers clear,
And harebells quivering on the meadow floor.
For brighter bells and bluer,
For tenderer hearts and truer,
People that happy land-the realm of
Nevermore.
Upon the frontier of this shadowy land
We pilgrims of perpetual sorrow stand;
What realm lies forward, with its happier store
Of forests green and deep,
Of valleys hushed in sleep,
And lakes most peaceful?'T is the land of
Evermore.
Very far off its marble cities seemVery far off-beyond our sensual dream Its woods, unruffled by the wild winds roar;
Yet does the turbulent surge
Howl on its very verge.
One moment-and we breathe within the
Evermore.
They whom we loved and lost so long ago,
Dwell in those cities, far from mortal woe Haunt those fresh woodlands whence sweet carolings
soar.
Eternal peace have they;
God wipes their tears away;
They drink that stream of life which flows for
Evermore.
Thither we hasten through these regions dim.
But lo! the wide wings of the Seraphim
Shine in the sunset! On that joyous shore
Our lightened hearts shall know
The life of long ago;
The sorrow-burdened past shall fade for
Evermore.
BEAUTY AND DUTY.
IN through the pane of my garret window
The sun played lightly upon the floor,
Gilding the wall with its golden meshes,
And building a mosque on the panel door.
Out on the hills was a glorious Summer,
Up in the clouds an opaline sea,
Down in the valley the waving grasses,
And air all trembling with melody.
Over my heart a beautiful vision,
Wooed and cherished for years and years,
Hung like a rainbow on the mountain,
Showing the sun through misty tears.
What cared I for my humble dwelling,
The crust of bread, or the tattered clothes;
Here were the blossoms of golden Summer,
And dim in the future a palace rose.
A palace where I would reign-a Zenobia,
Rich as the queen with her Eastern gems,
And perfumed censers and sandaled minions,
Wealth, and honor, and diadems.
Down in the street'neath my garret window
Alone a ministering angel passed;
She paused in the huts of the poor and lowly,
And into their shadows her treasures cast.
Her hand was soothing the sick and weary,
HIer soul was breathing a holy prayer,
The orphan smiled as her footsteps lingered,
And fancied an angel was passing there.
Over the way sat a lonely student,
Giving his life for a noble thought
That would live and move through coming ages,
Deeming the prize but lightly bought.
Out on the field a valiant warrior
Is earning a name that shall live thro' years;
Long after his armor is hung in Valhalla,
And the flowers on his grave have been bathed in
tears.
Immortelles are blooming to crown each worker,
Slowly they're winning them day by day;
Duty an,d beauty are both before them,
While I sit dreaming the hours away.
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