And when at last thy love shall die, Wilt thou receive his parting breath? Wilt thou repress each struggling sigh, And cheer with smiles the bed of death? And wilt thou o'er his much-loved clay Strew flowers, and drop the tender tear? Nor then regret those scenes so gay, Where thou wert fairest of the fair? Dr. Thomas Percy. THE SEMPSTRESS TO HER MIGNONETTE. I LOVE that box of mignonette; Above your choicest hot-house flowers, Thank Heaven, not yet I've learned on that 'Tis priceless as the thoughts it brings, I know my own sweet mignonette Yet on your garden's rarest blooms With more delight than mine on yours, Why do I prize my mignonette That lights my window there ?—— It adds a pleasure to delight, It steals a weight from care; What happy daylight dreams it brings My long, long hours of weary work, It tells of May, my mignonette, I think the green, bright, pleasant spring Wide fields lay stretching from my sight, What talks it of, my mignonette?— Of woodland bank of primroses, Of heath and breezy hill; Through country lanes and daisied fields, Through paths with morning wet, Again I trip, as when a girl, With you, my mignonette. For this I love my mignonette, That country thoughts and scents and sounds For this, though low in rich men's thoughts Your worth and love be set I bless you, pleasure of the poor, My own sweet mignonette. W. C. Bennett. T THE MINSTREL BOY. HE minstrel boy to the war is gone, And his wild harp slung behind him. "Land of song!" said the warrior bard, "Though all the world betrays thee, One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard, One faithful harp shall praise thee !' The minstrel fell! but the foeman's chain And said, "No chains shall sully thee, Thy songs were made for the pure and free, Moore. TO THE DANDELION. EAR common flower, that grow'st beside the DE way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold, First pledge of blithesome May, Which children pluck, and, full of pride, uphold. High-hearted buccaneers, o'erjoyed that they An Eldorado on the grass have found, Which not the rich earth's ample round Gold such as thine ne'er drew the Spanish prow Of age, to rob the lover's heart of ease; 'Tis the spring's largess, which she scatters now To rich and poor alike, with lavish hand, Though most hearts never understand To take it at God's value, but pass by The offered wealth with unrewarded eye. Thou art my tropics and mine Italy; Are in thy heart, and heed not space or time; Feels a more summer-like warm ravishment His fragrant Sybaris, than I, when first Then think I of deep shadows on the grass, The gleaming rushes lean a thousand ways; That from the distance sparkle through My childhood's earliest thoughts are linked with thee; The sight of thee calls back the robin's song, Beside the door, sang dearly all day long. With news from Heaven, which he could bring Fresh every day to my untainted ears, When birds and flowers and I were happy peers. How like a prodigal doth Nature seem, When thou, for all thy gold, so common art! Thou teachest me to deem More sacredly of every human heart, Since each reflects in joy its scanty gleam Of Heaven, and could some wondrous secret show, Did we but pay the love we owe, And with a child's undoubting wisdom look On all these living pages of God's book. Lowell. "LE LAW AND WALTZING. EX scripta, the written, the written, the statute, Non scripta, non scripta, the unwritten law, Include and, include and, not only the customs Of certain, and certain, and certain "" Oh, pshaw ! Here now am I reading this chapter of Blackstone, To the time, to the time of the waltzes last night; Von Weber, Von Weber! and Blackstone, and Blackstone! I wonder why waltzes won't stop after light. Ah, me! how we floated together, together, Adown and adown the bright depths of the room, All under and under the wreathings of banners, And into Perfumeland of bloom and of bloom. As one, and as one-and our souls the mad music; Her heart beating time unto mine, unto mine; We waltzed away, waltzed away, out of the finite Afar and afar into Bosh! it is nine, And here is my Blackstone awaiting my pleasure; I forgot in the dance I was briefless, and now I'll |