A moment to my side he clung,
Leaving his merry play;

A moment still'd his joyous tongue,
Almost as hush'd as they.

Then, quite forgetting the command,

In life's exulting burst

Of early glee, let go my hand,
Joyous as at the first.

And now I did not check him more,
For, taught by Nature's face,
I had grown wiser than before,
Even in that moment's space.

SHE spread no funeral pall above
That patch of churchyard ground,

But the same azure vault of love

As hung o'er all around.

And white clouds o'er that spot would pass

As freely as elsewhere;

The sunshine on no other grass

A richer hue might wear.

And form'd from out that very mould
In which the dead did lie,
The daisy, with its eye of gold,

Look'd up into the sky.

The rook was wheeling overhead,
Nor hasten'd to be gone;

The small bird did its glad notes shed,
Perch'd on a grey head-stone.

And God, I said, would never give
This light upon the earth,

Nor bid in Childhood's heart to live
These springs of gushing mirth,

If our one wisdom were to mourn,
And linger with the dead,

To nurse, as wisest, thoughts forlorn.
Of worm and early bed.

Oh no! the glory earth puts on,
The child's uncheck'd delight,
Both witness to a triumph won-
(If we but judged aright)-

A triumph won o'er Sin and Death-
From these the Saviour saves;

And, like a happy infant, Faith
Can play among the graves!

TO AN INFANT SLEEPING.

OH, drinking deep of slumber's holy wine,
Whence may the smile that lights thy countenance be?
We seek in vain the mystery divine;

For in thy dim unconscious infancy

No games as yet, no play-fellows are thine,

To stir in waking hours such thoughts of glee, As recollected in thine innocent dream

Might shed across thy face a happy gleam.

It may be, though small notice thou canst take,
Thou feelest that an atmosphere of love

Is ever round thee, sleeping or awake:

move:

Thou wakest, and kind faces from above
Bend o'er thee-when thou sleepest, for thy sake
All sounds are hush'd, and each doth gently
And this dim consciousness of tender care
Has caused thy cheek this light of joy to wear.

Or it may be, thoughts deeper than we deem

Visit an infant's slumbers-God is near, Angels are talking to them in their dream,

Angelic voices whispering sweet and clear; And round them lies that region's holy gleam,

But newly left, and light which is not here = And thus has come that smile upon thy face, At tidings brought thee from thy native place

But whatsoe'er the causes which beguiled
That dimple on thy countenance, it is gone;
Fair is the lake disturb'd by ripple mild,

But not less fair when ripple it has none:
And now what deep repose is thine, dear child,
What smoothness thy unruffled cheek has won!
Oh! who that gazed upon thee could forbear
The silent breathing of an heart-felt prayer!

ALFORD.

HYMN TO THE SEA.

WHO shall declare the secret of thy birth,
Thou old companion of the circling earth?

And having marked with keen poetic sight
Ere beast or happy bird

Through the vast silence stirred,

Roll back the folded darkness of the primal night?

Corruption-like, thou teemedst in the graves

Of mouldering systems, with dark weltering waves

Troubling the peace of the first mother's womb;

Whose ancient awful form,

With inly-tossing storm,

Unquiet heavings kept-a birth-place and a tomb.

Till the life-giving Spirit moved above

The face of the waters, with creative love

Warming the hidden seeds of infant light:

What time the mighty Word

Through thine abyss was heard,

And swam from out thy deeps the young day heavenly bright.

Thou and the earth, twin-sisters, as they say,
In the old prime were fashion'd in the day,
And therefore thou delightest evermore
With her to lie, and play

The summer hours away,

Curling thy loving ripples up her quiet shore.

She is married, a matron long ago,

With nations at her side; her milk doth flow

Each year; but thee no husband dares to
Thy wild will is thine own,

Thy sole and virgin throne

Thy mood is ever changing-thy resolve the

Sunlight and moonlight minister to thee;-
O'er the broad circle of the shoreless sea

tame;

same.