THE TEARS OF HEAVEN. HEAVEN weeps above the earth all night till morn, In darkness weeps as all ashamed to weep, Because the earth hath made her state forlorn COME NOT WHEN I AM DEAD. COME not when I am dead, To drop thy foolish tears upon my grave, To trample round my fallen head, And vex the unhappy dust thou wouldst not save. There let the wind sweep and the plover cry; But thou go by. Child, if it were thine error or thy crime Wed whom thou wilt, but I am sick I care no longer, being all unblest of Time, And I desire to rest. Pass on, weak heart, and leave me where I lie: Go by, go by. CIRCUMSTANCE. Two children in two neighbor villages [leas. Playing mad pranks along the healthy With self-wrought evil of unnum- Two strangers meeting at a festival: Two lovers whispering by an orchard bered years, wall: Two lives bound fast in one with golden ease: Two graves grass-green beside a gray church-tower Washed with still rains and daisyblossomed; Two children in one hamlet born and bred: [to hour. So runs the round of life from hour WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. ALTHOUGH I enter not, AT THE CHURCH-GATE. The minster-bell tolls out And noise and humming; They've hushed the minster-bell, The organ 'gins to swell, She's coming,- coming! With modest eyes downcast; I will not enter there, She comes,-she's here,- she's past; But suffer me to pace May heaven go with her! Kneel undisturbed, fair saint, Pour out your praise or plaint Meekly and duly; Round the forbidden place, Lingering a minute, Like outcast spirits who wait, And see, through heaven's gate, Angels within it. I watched them; one sailed east, and one soared west, And one went floating south; while like a knell That mournful cry the empty sky possessed, "Farewell, farewell, farewell!" "Farewell!" I thought, it is the earth's one speech; All human voices the sad chorus swell; Though mighty love to heaven's high gate may reach, Yet must he say, "Farewell!" The rolling world is girdled with the sound, Perpetually breathed from all who dwell Upon its bosom, for no place is found Where is not heard, 66 Farewell!" 66 Farewell, farewell!" - from wave to wave 't is tossed, From wind to wind: earth has one tale to tell; All other sounds are dulled and drowned and lost In this one cry, "Farewell!" DISCONTENT. THERE is no day so dark But through the murk some ray of hope may steal, Some blessed touch from heaven that we might feel, If we but chose to mark. Cold stretch the snows, cold throng the waves, the wind Stings sharp,- an icy fire, a touch And sighs as if with passion of reunkind, The while I mark thy tints of violet. gret, O beauty strange! O shape of perfect grace, Whereon the lovely waves of color trace The history of the years that passed thee by, And touched thee with the pathos of the sky! The sea shall crush thee; yea, the ponderous wave Up the loose beach shall grind, and scoop thy grave, Thou thought of God! than thou am I? What more Both transient as the sad wind's passing sigh. REVERIE. THE white reflection of the sloop's great sail Sleeps trembling on the tide, In scarlet trim her crew lean o'er the rail, Lounging on either side. |