The fount that first burst frae this heart
Still travels on its way;
And channels deeper, as it rins,
The luve o' life's young day.

O dear, dear Jeanie Morrison,
Since we were sindered young
I've never seen your face, nor heard
The music o' your tongue;

But I could hug all wretchedness,

And happy could I die,

Did I but ken your heart still dreamed

O' bygane days and me!

These poor eyes, you called, I ween,

"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen

CATARINA TO CAMOENS.

But all changes. At this vesper,

Cold the sun shines down the door. If you stood there would you whisper

Yes! I think, were you beside them,
Near the bed I die upon,-

Though their beauty you denied them,
As you stood there looking down,
You would truly

Call them duly,

For the love's sake found therein,"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

And if you looked down upon them,
And if they looked up to you,
All the light which has foregone them
Would be gathered back anew!
They would truly

Be as duly

Love-transformed to beauty's sheen,-"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

But, ah me! you only see me
In your thoughts of loving man,
Smiling soft perhaps and dreamy
Through the wavings of my fan,-
And unweeting

Go repeating,

In your reverie serene,

"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

133

While my spirit leans and reaches
From my body still and pale,
Fain to hear what tender speech is
In your love, to help my bale-
O my poet,

Come and show it!

Come, of latest love, to glean
"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

O my poet, O my prophet,

When you praised their sweetness so,

Did you think in singing of it,
That it might be near to go?
Had you fancies

From their glances,

That the grave would quickly screen "Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"

No reply! The fountain's warble
In the court-yard sounds alone :
As the water to the marble

So my heart falls, with a moan,
From love-sighing

To this dying!

Death forerunneth Love, to win "Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

Will you come, when I'm departed
Where all sweetnesses are hid-
Where thy voice, my tender-hearted,
Will not lift up either lid?
Cry, O lover,

Love is over!

Cry beneath the cypress green— "Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

CATARINA TO CAMOENS.

When the angelus is ringing,

Near the convent will you walk,
And recall the choral singing

Which brought angels down our talk?
Spirit-shriven

I viewed Heaven,

Till you smiled—“ Is earth unclean,
Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"

When beneath the palace-lattice
You ride slow as you have done,

And you see a face there—that is
Not the old familiar one,-
Will you oftly

Murmur softly,

"Here ye watched me morn and e'en,

Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

When the palace-ladies, sitting

Round your gittern, shall have said,

"Poet, sing those verses written For the lady who is dead,"Will you tremble,

Yet dissemble,—

Or sing hoarse, with tears between,
Sweetest eyes, were ever seen?"

Sweetest eyes! How sweet in flowings
The repeated cadence is !

Though you sang a hundred poems,

Still the best one would be this.
I can hear it

'Twixt my spirit

And the earth-noise, intervene—

"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

135

But the priest waits for the praying,
And the choir are on their knees,—
And the soul must pass away in

Strains more solemn high than these!
Miserere

For the weary—

Oh, no longer for Catrine,
"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

Keep my riband, take and keep it,-
I have loosed it from my hair;
Feeling, while you overweep it,
Not alone in your despair,—
Since with saintly

Watch, unfaintly,

Out of Heaven shall o'er you lean "Sweetest eyes, were ever seen."

But-but now-yet unremoved
Up to heaven they glisten fast:
You may cast away, Belovèd,
In your future, all my past;
Such old phrases

May be praises

For some fairer bosom-queen-
"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen!"

Eyes of mine, what are ye doing?
Faithless, faithless-praised amiss,

If a tear be of your showing,
Dropt for any hope of HIS!
Death hath boldness

Besides coldness,

If unworthy tears demean

"Sweetest eyes, were ever seen.

I will look out to his future

I will bless it till it shine: