Auf Wiedersehen! (Summer.) 'HE little gate was reached at last, THE Half hid in lilacs down the lane; A wistful look she backward cast, And said," auf wiedersehen !” With hand on latch, a vision white The lamp's clear gleam flits up the stair, Ah, in that chamber whose rich air 'Tis thirteen years; once more I press I hear the rustle of her dress, I hear, “auf wiedersehen!" Sweet piece of bashful maiden art! The English words had seemed too fain; She said," auf wiedersehen!" JAMES R. LOWELL. PALINODE. (AUTUMN. 339 ST Palinode. (Autumn.) TILL thirteen years: 'tis Autumn now Sighs not," We meet again!" Two watched yon oriole's pendent dome, Sings not,-"We meet again!" The loath gate swings with rusty creak; Somewhere is comfort, somewhere faith, If earth another grave must bear, JAMES R. LOWELI.. After the Burial. 'ES, Faith is a goodly anchor YES When skies are sweet as a psalm; It lolls at the bows so stalwart In bluff, broad-shouldered calm. And when over breakers to leeward But, after the shipwreck, tell me What help in its iron thews, Still true to the broken hawser, Deep down among seaweed and ooze? In the breaking gulfs of sorrow, Then better one spar of memory, To the spirit its splendid conjectures, Immortal? I feel it and know it; But that is the pang's very secret- AFTER THE BURIAL. There's a narrow ridge in the graveyard Would scarce stay a child in his race; But to me and my thought it is wider Than the star-sown vague of space. Your logic, my friend, is perfect, Your moral 's most drearily true; Console, if you will; I can bear it ; It is pagan: but wait till you feel it, Communion in spirit? Forgive me, That little shoe in the corner, So worn and wrinkled and brown Its emptiness confutes you, And argues your wisdom down. JAMES R. Lowell. H The Dead House. ERE once my step was quickened, Here beckoned the opening door, And welcome thrilled from the threshold To the foot it had known before. 341 A glow came forth to meet me From the flame that laughed in the grate, And shadows a-dance on the ceiling, Danced blither with mine for a mate. "I claim you, old friend," yawned the arm-chair; "This corner, you know, is your seat;" "Rest your slippers on me," beamed the fender, "I brighten at touch of your feet." "We know the practiced finger," Said the books, "that seems like brain ;" And the shy page rustled the secret It had kept till I came again. Sang the pillow, "My down once quivered Ah me, where the Past sowed heart's-ease, I come back that scar unhealing But, I think, the house is unaltered, At the rooms that were once familiar Unaltered! Alas for the sameness That makes the change but more! 'Tis a dead man I see in the mirrors, 'Tis his tread that chills the floor! To learn such a simple lesson, Need I go to Paris and Rome, That the many make the household, But only one the home? |