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'T was a time when the heart could show All-how was earth to know,

Neath the mute hand's to-and-fro?

XII

Dearest, three months ago,

When we loved each other so,
Lived and loved the same

Till an evening came

When a shaft from the devil's bow
Pierced to our ingle-glow,

And the friends were friend and foe!

XIII

Not from the heart beneath

'T was a bubble born of breath,
Neither sneer nor vaunt,

Nor reproach nor taunt.

See a word, how it severeth!

Oh, power of life and death
In the tongue, as the Preacher saith!

XIV

Woman, and will you cast

For a word, quite off at last

Me, your own, your You,—
Since, as truth is true,

I was You all the happy past-
Me do you leave aghast

With the memories We amassed?

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And the beauteous and the right,—
Bear with a moment's spite

When a mere mote threats the white !

XVI

What of a hasty word?

In the fleshly heart not stirred
By a worm's pin-prick

Where its roots are quick?

See the eye, by a fly's foot blurredEar, when a straw is heard Scratch the brain's coat of curd !

XVII

Foul be the world or fair

More or less, how can I care?
'T is the world the same

For my praise or blame,

And endurance is easy there.

Wrong in the one thing rare

Oh, it is hard to bear!

XVIII

Here's the spring back or close,
When the almond-blossom blows;
We shall have the word

In a minor third

There is none but the cuckoo knows: Heaps of the guelder-rose !

I must bear with it, I suppose.

XIX

Could but November come,

Were the noisy birds struck dumb

At the warning slash

Of his driver's-lash

I would laugh like the valiant Thumb
Facing the castle glum

And the giant's fee-faw-fum !

XX

Then, were the world well-stripped

Of the gear

wherein equipped

We can stand apart,

Heart dispense with heart

In the sun, with the flowers unnipped,-Oh, the world's hangings ripped, We were both in a bare-walled crypt !

XXI

Each in the crypt would cry

"But one freezes here! and why? "When a heart, as chill,

"At my own would thrill

"Back to life, and its fires out-fly? "Heart, shall we live or die? "The rest settle by-and-by!"

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XXII

So, she 'd efface the score,
And forgive me as before.
It is twelve o'clock:

I shall hear her knock

In the worst of a storm's uproar :

I shall pull her through the door,

I shall have her for evermore !

EARTH'S IMMORTALITIES.

FAME.

SEE, as the prettiest graves will do in time,
Our poet's wants the freshness of its prime;
Spite of the sexton's browsing horse, the sods
Have struggled through its binding osier rods;
Headstone and half-sunk footstone lean awry,
Wanting the brick-work promised by-and-by;
How the minute grey lichens, plate o'er plate,
Have softened down the crisp-cut name and date!

LOVE.

So, the year 's done with!

(Love me for ever !)
All March begun with,

April's endeavour;
May-wreaths that bound me

June needs must sever;
Now snows fall round me,
Quenching June's fever-
(Love me for ever!)

THE LAST RIDE TOGETHER.

I

I SAID-Then, dearest, since 't is so,

Since now at length my fate I know,

Since nothing all my love avails,

Since all, my life seemed meant for, fails,

Since this was written and needs must be

My whole heart rises up to bless

Your name in pride and thankfulness!

Take back the hope you gave,—I claim

Only a memory of the same,

-And this beside, if you will not blame,
Your leave for one more last ride with me.

II

My mistress bent that brow of hers;
Those deep dark eyes where pride demurs
When pity would be softening through,
Fixed me a breathing-while or two

With life or death in the balance: right!
The blood replenished me again;
My last thought was at least not vain :
I and my mistress, side by side

Shall be together, breathe and ride,

So, one day more am I deified.

Who knows but the world may end to-night?

III

Hush! if you saw some western cloud
All billowy-bosomed, over-bowed
By many benedictions—sun's

And moon's and evening star's at once-
And so, you, looking and loving best,
Conscious grew, your passion drew
Cloud, sunset, moonrise, star-shine too,
Down on you, near and yet more near,
Till flesh must fade for heaven was here!-
Thus leant she and lingered-joy and fear!
Thus lay she a moment on my breast.

Then we began to ride.

IV

My soul

Smoothed itself out, a long-cramped scroll
Freshening and fluttering in the wind.

Past hopes already lay behind.

What need to strive with a life awry?

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