TO ONE IN PARADISE.

I.

THOU wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine-
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,

All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.

II.

Ah, dream, too bright to last!
Ah, starry hope, that didst arise

But to be overcast!

A voice from out the future cries, "On! on!"-but o'er the past

(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies, Mute, motionless, aghast!

(Such language holds the solemn sea To the sands upon the shore) Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,

Or the stricken eagle soar!

IV.

And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams;

In what ethereal dances,

By what eternal streams.

95

THE VALLEY OF UNREST.

Once it smiled a silent dell

Where the people did not dwell:
They had gone unto the wars,
Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,
Nightly from their azure towers
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sunlight lazily lay.

Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley's restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless-
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.

Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas

Around the misty Hebrides!

Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven That rustle through the unquiet heaven. Uneasily, from morn till even.