The nursery shows thy pictured wall,
Thy bat, thy bow,

Thy cloak and bonnet, club and ball;
But where art thou?

A corner holds thine empty chair,
Thy playthings idly scattered there,
But speak to us of our despair,

Casa Wappy!

Even to the last thy every word-
To glad, to grieve—

Was sweet as sweetest song of bird
On summer's eve;

In outward beauty undecayed,

Death o'er thy spirit cast no shade,

And like the rainbow thou didst fade,

Casa Wappy!

We mourn for thee when blind blank night

The chamber fills;

We pine for thee when morn's first light

Reddens the hills:

The sun, the moon, the stars, the sea,

All, to the wall-flower and wild pea,

Are changed-we saw the world through thee,

Casa Wappy!

And though, perchance, a smile may gleam

Of casual mirth,

It doth not own, whate'er may seem,

An inward birth:

We miss thy small step on the stair;
We miss thee at thine evening prayer!

All day we miss thee, everywhere,

Casa Wappy!

Snows muffled earth when thou didst go,
In life's spring bloom,

Down to the appointed house below,
The silent tomb.

But now the green leaves of the tree,
The cuckoo and "the busy bee"
Return-but with them bring not thee,
Casa Wappy!

'Tis so; but can it be (while flowers Revive again)

Man's doom, in death that we and ours For aye remain?

Oh! can it be, that o'er the grave

The grass renewed, should yearly wave, Yet God forget our child to save?—

Casa Wappy!

It cannot be for were it so

Thus man could die,

Life were a mockery, Thought were woe,

And Truth a lie;

Heaven were a coinage of the brain,

Religion frenzy, Virtue vain,

And all our hopes to meet again,

Casa Wappy!

Then be to us, O dear, lost child!
With beam of love,

A star, death's uncongenial wild
Smiling above;

Soon, soon thy little feet have trod
The skyward path, the seraph's road,
That led thee back from man to God,
Casa Wappy!

Yet 'tis sweet balm to our despair,

Fond, fairest boy,

That heaven is God's, and thou art there,

With him in joy:

There past are death and all its woes,
There beauty's stream forever flows,

And pleasure's day no sunset knows,

Casa Wappy!

Farewell, then-for a while, farewell

Pride of my heart!

It cannot be that long we dwell,

Thus torn apart:

Time's shadows like the shuttle flee:
And, dark howe'er life's night may be,
Beyond the grave I'll meet with thee,

- Casa Wappy!

His courtiers of the Caliph crave,-
"Oh, say how this may be,
That of thy slaves, this Ethiop slave
Is best beloved by thee?

"For he is ugly as the Night;
But when has ever chose
A nightingale, for its delight,
A hueless, scentless rose?"

The Caliph, then :-"No features fair,
Nor comely mien, are his;
Love is the beauty he doth wear,

And Love his glory is.

"When once a camel of my train

There fell in narrow street, From broken casket roll'd amain

Rich pearls before my feet.

"I winking to the slaves that I
Would freely give them these,
At once upon the spoil they fly,
The costly boon to seize.

"One only at my side remainedBeside this Ethiop none:

He, moveless as the steed he reined, Behind me sat alone.

"What will thy gain, good fellow, be,
Thus lingering at my side?'
My king, that I shall faithfully
Have guarded thee,' he cried.

"True servant's title he may wear He only who has not,

For his Lord's gifts, how rich soe'er, His Lord himself forgot."

So thou alone dost walk before
Thy God with perfect aim,
From Him desiring nothing more
Beside Himself to claim.

For if thou not to Him aspire,
But to His gifts alone,

Not Love, but covetous desire,

Has brought thee to His throne.

While such thy prayer, it climbs above In vain the golden key

Of God's rich treasure-house of love, Thine own will never be