CIRCUMSTANCE.

Two children in two neighbour villages
Playing mad pranks along the heathy leas;
Two strangers meeting at a festival;

Two lovers whispering by an orchard wall;

Two lives bound fast in one with golden ease;

Two graves grass-green

beside a gray

church-tower,

Wash'd with still rains and daisy-blossomed ;

Two children in one hamlet born and bred;

So runs the round of life from hour to hour.

THE MERMAN.

WHO would be

A merman bold

Sitting alone,

Singing alone

Under the sea,

With a crown of gold,

On a throne?

I would be a merman bold;

I would sit and sing the whole of the day;

I would fill the sea-halls with a voice of

power;

But at night I would roam abroad and play

With the mermaids in and out of the rocks,

Dressing their hair with the white sea-flower;
And holding them back by their flowing locks

I would kiss them often under the sea,

And kiss them again till they kiss'd me
Laughingly, laughingly;

And then we would wander away, away

To the pale-green sea-groves straight and high, Chasing each other merrily.

There would be neither moon nor star;

But the wave would make music above us afar

Low thunder and light in the magic night—

Neither moon nor star.

We would call aloud in the dreamy dells,

Call to each other and whoop and cry

All night, merrily, merrily;

They would pelt me with starry spangles and shells, Laughing and clapping their hands between,

All night, merrily, merrily:

But I would throw to them back in mine

Turkis and agate and almondine:

Then leaping out

upon

them unseen

I would kiss them often under the sea,

And kiss them again till they kiss'd me
Laughingly, laughingly.

Oh! what a happy life were mine
Under the hollow-hung ocean green!

Soft are the moss-beds under the sea;
We would live merrily, merrily.

THE MERMAID.

WHO would be

A mermaid fair,

Singing alone,
Combing her hair

Under the sea,

In a golden curl

With a comb of pearl,

On a throne ?

I would be a mermaid fair;

I would sing to myself the whole of the day;
With a comb of pearl I would comb my hair;

And still as I comb'd I would sing and say,

66

Who is it loves me? who loves not me?

I would comb my hair till my ringlets would fall,