As fair fingers heal'd

Knights from the olden field,

We hold cups of mightiest force to give the wildest calm. Ev'n the terror, poison,

Hath its plea for blooming;

Life it gives to reverent lips, though death to the presuming.

And oh! our sweet soul-taker,

That thief, the honey maker,

What a house hath he, by the thymy glen!

In his talking rooms

How the feasting fumes,

Till the gold cups overflow to the mouths of men!

The butterflies come aping

Those fine thieves of ours,

And flutter round our rifled tops, like tickled flowers with

flowers.

See those tops, how beauteous!
What fair service duteous

Round some idol waits, as on their lord the Nine?

Elfin court 'twould seem;

And taught, perchance, that dream

Which the old Greek mountain dreamt, upon nights divine. To expound such wonder

Human speech avails not;

Yet there dies no poorest weed, that such a glory exhales not.

Think of all these treasures
Matchless works and pleasures,

Every one a marvel, more than thought can say;

Then think in what bright show'rs

We thicken fields and bow'rs,

And with what heaps of sweetness half stifle wanton May:

Think of the mossy forests
By the bee-birds haunted,

And all those Amazonian plains, lone lying as enchanted.

Trees themselves are ours;

Fruits are born of flowers;

Peach, and roughest nut, were blossoms in the spring:
The lusty bee knows well
The news, and comes pell-mell,

And dances in the gloomy thicks with darksome antheming. Beneath the very burthen

Of planet-pressing ocean,

We wash our smiling cheeks in peace,—a thought for meek devotion.

Tears of Phoebus,-missings

Of Cytherea's kissings,

Have in us been found, and wise men find them still;

Drooping grace unfurls

Still Hyacinthus' curls,

And Narcissus loves himself in the selfish rill:

Thy red lip, Adonis,

Still is wet with morning;

And the step, that bled for thee, the rosy briar adorning.

Oh! true things are fables,
Fit for sagest tables,

And the flow'rs are true things,-yet no fables they;

Fables were not more

Bright, nor loved of yore,—

Yet they grew not, like the flow'rs, by every old pathway: Grossest hand can test us;

Fools may prize us never :

Yet we rise, and rise, and rise,-marvels sweet for ever.

Who shall say, that flowers

Dress not heaven's own bowers?

Who its love, without us, can fancy—or sweet floor?

Who shall even dare

To say, we sprang not there,

And came not down that Love might bring one piece of heav'n

the more?

Oh! pray believe that angels
From those blue dominions,

Brought us in their white laps down, 'twixt their golden pinions.

TO A CHILD, DURING SICKNESS.

SLEEP breathes at last from out thee,
My little, patient boy;
And balmy rest about thee

Smooths off the day's annoy.
I sit me down, and think

Of all thy winning ways;
Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink,
That I had less to praise.

Thy sidelong pillow'd meekness,
Thy thanks to all that aid,
Thy heart, in pain and weakness,
Of fancied faults afraid;
The little trembling hand

That wipes thy quiet tears,-
These, these are things that may
Dread memories for years.

demand

Sorrows I've had, severe ones
I will not think of now;
And calmly 'midst my dear ones,
Have wasted with dry brow:
But when thy fingers press,

And pat my stooping head,
I cannot bear the gentleness,-
The tears are in their bed.

Ah! firstborn of thy mother,

When life and hope were new;
Kind playmate of thy brother,
Thy sister, father, too:
My light where'er I go,

My bird when prison bound,-
My hand in hand companion,-no,
My prayers shall hold thee round.

To say, "He has departed,”–

"His voice,”—“ his face,”—“ is gone;"

To feel impatient-hearted,

Yet feel we must bear on :

Ah, I could not endure

To whisper of such wo, Unless I felt this sleep insure That it will not be so.

Yes, still he's fix'd, and sleeping!
This silence too the while-
Its very hush and creeping

Seem whispering us a smile:-
Something divine and dim

Seems going by one's ear, Like parting wings of cherubim, "We've finished here."

Who say,

THE GLOVE AND THE LIONS.

KING Francis was a hearty king, and lov'd a royal sport,
And one day, as his lions fought, sat looking on the court;
The nobles fill'd the benches round, the ladies by their side,
And 'mongst them sat the Count de Lorge, with one for
whom he sigh'd:

And truly 'twas a gallant thing to see that crowning show, Valour and love, and a king above, and the royal beasts below.

Ramp'd and roar'd the lions, with horrid laughing jaws; They bit, they glared, gave blows like beams, a wind went with their paws;

With wallowing might and stifled roar, they roll'd on one another,

Till all the pit, with sand and mane, was in a thunderous smother;

66

The bloody foam above the bars came whizzing through the air: Said Francis, then, than there."

Faith, gentlemen, we're better here

De Lorge's love o'erheard the king, a beauteous, lively dame, With smiling lips and sharp bright eyes, which always seem'd the same;

She thought, The count, my lover, is brave as brave can be

He surely would do wondrous things to show his love of

me:

King, ladies, lovers, all look on; the occasion is divine,—
I'll drop my glove, to prove his love; great glory will be

mine,