Peril deep, adventure strange,

Time and tide, and chance and change

Yet the three who parted then

Here in age do meet again!

II.

When our parting song we sung,
We were hopeful, we were young;
And the tears that dimmed our eyes,
Were but drops of April skies.
Bright the Past behind us lay,

Bright was Life's untrodden way!

High in heart we parted then,
How do we three meet again?

III.

Guests, whose faces, homeward set,

On the threshold linger yet

Reapers, tired at set of sun;

Voyagers, whose port is won

L

Pilgrims, whose expectant eyes See the distant towers ariseWearied of the ways of men— Thus do we three meet again

A DIRGE

I.

LAY him in his quiet bed,
Strew the turf upon his head,

Give not idle grief its vent:

Wherefore should we make lament?

Speak not of a goodly flower
Blighted in its fairest hour!

Many days in life he passed;
None so welcome as the last!
And the gift he most did crave,
Was the quiet of the grave.

II.

From his cradle to his shroud,
Sorrow wrapped him in her cloud.
Orphaned young, by strangers nursed,
Lonely-hearted from the first.

No fond arms, with love untold,
Did his infant limbs enfold.

Crow, and laugh, and baby-joke,

Ne'er his nursery's echoes woke.
As in riper years he grew,

None his bosom's secrets knew;

All unloved through life he passed, Lonely-hearted to the last!

III.

Yet the heart that seemed so chill

Did with deep affections thrill.

Love to him did seem to be

This world's one reality:

And, for that fair prize of love,

Many a weary year he strove :

Spared not toil, nor heeded pain,
Yet his search was all in vain.
Honour, praise, esteem, he won

From all hearts, but love from none !

IV.

Till the soul, so sternly tried,

By long grief was purified;
And in Sorrow's frequent blast

Wisdom's voice was heard at last :
That the gift for which he sighed,
Must in mercy be denied.

In the bliss of such a lot,

Heaven for Earth had been forgot.
Low he bowed, and then for aye,
Cast his cherished hope away.

V.

In the world he bore his part,
With a frank and manly heart.
Few his hidden sorrow guessed,
None e'er heard its tale confessed.