Yes, still he's fixed, and sleeping! This silence too the while · It's very hush and creeping Seem whispering us a smile: Something divine and dim Seems going by one's ear, Like parting wings of cherubim, Who say, 66 'We've finished here."

8

TO THE

GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET.

GREEN little vaulter in the sunny grass,
Catching your heart up at the feel of June,
Sole voice that's heard amidst the lazy noon,
When ev'n the bees lag at the summoning brass;
And you, warm little housekeeper, who class
With those who think the candles come too soon,
Loving the fire, and with your tricksome tune
Nick the glad silent moments as they pass;

Oh sweet and tiny cousins, that belong,
One to the fields, the other to the hearth,

Both have your sunshine; both, though small, are strong
At
your clear hearts; and both seem giv'n to earth
To sing in thoughtful ears this natural song-

In doors and out, summer and winter, Mirth.

A THOUGHT OF THE NILE.

Ir flows through old hushed Egypt and its sands, Like some grave mighty thought threading a dream, And times and things, as in that vision, seem Keeping along it their eternal stands,—

Caves, pillars, pyramids, the shepherd bands

That roamed through the young earth, the glory

extreme

Of high Sesostris, and that southern beam,

The laughing queen that caught the world's great hands.

Then comes a mightier silence, stern and strong,
As of a world left empty of its throng,

And the void weighs on us; and then we wake,
And hear the fruitful stream lapsing along
'Twixt villages, and think how we shall take
Our own calm journey on for human sake.

ARIADNE WAKING.

A FRAGMENT.

THE moist and quiet morn was scarcely breaking,
When Ariadne in her bower was waking;
Her eyelids still were closing, and she heard
But indistinctly yet a little bird,

That in the leaves o'erhead, waiting the sun,
Seemed answering another distant one.
She waked, but stirred not, only just to please
Her pillow-nestling cheek; while the full seas,
The birds, the leaves, the lulling love o'ernight,
The happy thought of the returning light,
The sweet, self-willed content, conspired to keep
Her senses lingering in the feel of sleep;
And with a little smile she seemed to say,
"I know my love is near me, and 'tis day."

ON HEARING A LITTLE MUSICAL BOX.

Dilettevol' suoni

Faceano intorno l'aria tintinnire

D'armonia dolce, e di concenti buoni.

Ariosto.

HALLO!-what? - where? what can it be
That strikes up so deliciously?

I never in my life what no!

-

That little tin-box playing so?

It really seemed as if a sprite
Had struck among us, swift and light,

And come from some minuter star

To treat us with his pearl guitar.

Hark! it scarcely ends the strain,
But it gives it o'er again,

Lovely thing! and runs along,

Just as if it knew the song,

Touching out, smooth, clear and small,

Harmony, and shake, and all,

Now upon the treble lingering,
Dancing now as if 'twere fingering,