ONLY A CURL.

You know how one angel smiles there,
Then weep not. 'Tis easy for you
To be drawn by a single gold hair

Of that curl, from earth's storm and despair,

To the safe place above us. Adieu.

161

MRS. E. B. BROWNING.

M

A SHOCK OF CORN FULLY RIPE.

ERY calm, and very silent,

Lay my father there;

On the whiteness of the pillow
Shone his silver hair.

"Raise the blind up, will you, Willie ?

I would see the night;

Earth in her young spring lay sleeping, Kissed by the moonlight.

"And now put the lamp out, Willie ;

I would see my star."

Trees below it, while above it

Stretched a cloudy bar.

A SHOCK OF CORN FULLY RIPE.

"It will soon be shrouded, father."

"Yes, my son, it will."

Quietly the vapours hid it,

And the room was still.

163

W. T. EDWARDS.

UNDER THE ALDER-TREE.

FF, vulture Loneliness! away! why
Wilt keep company with me.

O chain of life, that bind'st me down
To this drear rock, I weary o' thee!
For she will not come again,

Will not come ever to me!

Bliss? the bliss, the bliss is o'er,

Is lost for ever my heart's dear prize;
And she's mine no more, no more,

To make the heart beat quicker in me;
For the wind waileth where she lies

Under the alder-tree.

Face, where while we gaze on't feeling-
Seldom pruned, for purity,—

UNDER THE ALDER-TREE.

165

Springs from soul, roots through the fea

tures,

Upward branching like a tree;—

Oh, her looks!-they were like skies,

Raining blessings ever on me;

Ever on me?-woe's me, 'tis o'er,

And I may not live i' th' love of her eyes,
And they smile no more, no more,
To make the heart beat quicker in me;
For the leaf withereth where she lies
Under the alder-tree.

Then a step so softly, stately,
So divinely womanly,

That, than angels own, it seemeth
Scarce by one sin's weight less free;
Oh, her step?-and it always came,
Springing lighter, springing to me!
Ever to me? woe's me, 'tis o'er, 'tis o'er,
And she never, never to meet me flies;
And she comes no more, no more,

To make the heart beat quicker in me;
For the grass waveth where she lies,
Under the alder-tree.