Her court was pure; her life serene; God gave her peace; her land reposed A thousand claims to reverence closed In her as Mother, Wife and Queen; "And statesmen at her council met By shaping some august decree, POEMS. CLARIBEL. A MELODY. WHERE Claribel low-lieth At eve the beetle boometh Athwart the thicket lone: At noon the wild bee hummeth About the mossed headstone: At midnight the moon cometh And looketh down alone. Her song the lintwhite swelleth, The clear-voiced mavis dwelleth, The callow throstle lispeth, The slumbrous wave outwelleth, The babbling runnel crispeth, The hollow grot replieth Where Claribel low-lieth. LILIAN. AIRY, fairy Lilian, When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs, She, looking through and through me Thoroughly to undo me, Smiling, never speaks: So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple, From beneath her gathered wimple Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks; Then away she flies. Prithee weep, May Lilian! Gayety without eclipse Wearieth me, May Lilian: Through my very heart it thrilleth When from crimson-threaded lips Silver-treble laughter trilleth: Prithee weep, May Lilian. Praying all I can, If prayers will not hush thee, Airy Lilian, Like a rose-leaf I will crush thee, ISABEL. EYES not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead. Error from crime; a prudence to withhold; Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway, With swifter movement and in purer light The vexed eddies of its wayward brother · A leaning and upbearing parasite, Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite With clustered flower-bells and ambrosial orbs MARIANA. "Mariana in the moated grange."-Measure for Measure I. WITH blackest moss the flower-plots Weeded and worn the ancient thatch Upon the lonely moated grange. She only said, "My life is dreary, II. Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven, Either at morn or eventide. After the flitting of the bats, When thickest dark did trance the sky, She said, "I am aweary, aweary, |