LADY DUFFERIN. WINTHROP MACKWORTH PRAED. 163 There, too, is the pillow where Christ | The place is little changed, Mary; bowed his head; meet, Their Saviour and brethren transported to greet, While the anthems of rapture unceasingly roll, And the smile of the Lord is the feast of the soul? That heavenly music! what is it I hear? The notes of the harpers ring sweet on my ear! And see soft unfolding those portals of gold, The King all arrayed in his beauty behold! O, give me, O, give me the wings of a dove! Let me hasten my flight to those mansions above: Ay! 't is now that my soul on swift pinions would soar, And in ecstasy bid earth adieu evermore. LADY DUFFERIN. [1807-1867.] THE IRISH EMIGRANT. I'm sitting on the stile, Mary, On a bright May morning long ago, The corn was springing fresh and green, The day 's as bright as then; 'Tis but a step down yonder lane, With your baby on your breast. I'm very lonely now, Mary, I'm bidding you a long farewell, Gave signal sweet in that old hall Of all that sets young hearts romancing: She was our queen, our rose, our star; And when she danced-O Heaven, her dancing! Dark was her hair; her hand was white; Shot right and left a score of arrows: spar She sketched; the vale, the wood, the beach, Grew lovelier from her pencil's shading: She botanized; I envied each Young blossom in her boudoir fading: She warbled Handel; it was grand, She made the Catalani jealous: She touched the organ; I could stand For hours and hours and blow the bellows. She kept an album, too, at home, Paintings of butterflies and Rome, Fierce odes to famine and to slaughter, And she was flattered, worshipped, bored; Her steps were watched, her dress was noted; Her poodle dog-was quite adored; Her sayings were extremely quoted. She laughed, and every heart was glad, As if the taxes were abolished; She frowned, and every look was sad, As if the opera were demolished. She smiled on many just for fun, I knew that there was nothing in it; I was the first, the only one Her heart had thought of for a minute: I knew it, for she told me so, In phrase which was divinely moulded; She wrote a charming hand, and O, How sweetly all her notes were folded! Our love was like most other loves, And "Fly Not Yet," upon the river; Some jealousy of some one's heir, Some hopes of dying broken-hearted, A miniature, a lock of hair, The usual vows, and then we parted. We parted, months and years rolled by; There had been many other lodgers, And she was not the ball-room belle, But only Mrs. Something-Rogers. |