THE BEGGAR MAID.

HER arms across her breast she laid;

She was more fair than words can say: Bare-footed came the beggar maid Before the king Cophetua.

In robe and crown the king stept down, To meet and greet her on her way;

'It is no wonder,' said the lords,

'She is more beautiful than day.'

As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen :

One praised her ancles, one her eyes,

One her dark hair and lovesome mien.

So sweet a face, such angel grace,

In all that land had never been: Cophetua sware a royal oath :

'This beggar maid shall be my queen!'

THE EAGLE.

FRAGMENT.

HE clasps the crag with crooked hands; Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls; He watches from his mountain walls, And like a thunderbolt he falls.

MOVE eastward, happy earth, and leave Yon orange sunset waning slow:

From fringes of the faded eve,

O, happy planet, eastward go; Till over thy dark shoulder glow

Thy silver sister-world, and rise To glass herself in dewy eyes That watch me from the glen below.

Ah, bear me with thee, smoothly borne, Dip forward under starry light,

And move me to my marriage-morn,

And round again to happy night.

COME not, when I am dead,

To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave,

To trample round my fallen head,

And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not

save.

There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou, go by.

Child, if it were thine error or thy crime
I care no longer, being all unblest :

Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick of Time,

And I desire to rest.

Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie:

Go by, go by.