ΤΟ

CLEAR-HEADED friend, whose joyful scorn, Edged with sharp laughter, cuts atwain The knots that tangle human creeds, The wounding cords that bind and strain The heart until it bleeds,

Ray-fringed eyelids of the morn

Roof not a glance so keen as thine :

If aught of prophecy be mine,

Thou wilt not live in vain.

Low-cowering shall the Sophist sit ;

Falsehood shall bare her plaited brow : Fair-fronted Truth shall droop not now

With shrilling shafts of subtle wit.

Nor martyr-flames, nor trenchant swords Can do away that ancient lie;

A gentler death shall Falsehood die,

Shot thro' and thro' with cunning words.

Weak Truth a-leaning on her crutch,

Wan, wasted Truth in her utmost need,

Thy kingly intellect shall feed,

Until she be an athlete bold,

And weary

with a finger's touch

Those writhed limbs of lightning speed;

Like that strange angel which of old, Until the breaking of the light, Wrestled with wandering Israel,

Past Yabbok brook the livelong night, And heaven's mazed signs stood still In the dim tract of Penuel.

MADELINE.

THOU art not steep'd in golden languors, No tranced summer calm is thine,

Ever varying Madeline.

Thro' light and shadow thou dost range,
Sudden glances, sweet and strange,

Delicious spites, and darling angers,

And airy forms of flitting change.

Smiling, frowning, evermore,

Thou art perfect in love-lore.

Revealings deep and clear are thine
Of wealthy smiles: but who may know

Whether smile or frown be fleeter?

Whether smile or frown be sweeter,

VOL. I.

Who may know?

C

The intuitive decision of a bright

And thorough-edged intellect to part

Error from crime; a prudence to withhold ; The laws of marriage character'd in gold Upon the blanched tablets of her heart; A love still burning upward giving light To read those laws; an accent very low

In blandishment, but a most silver flow

Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, Right to the heart and brain, though undescried, Winning its way with extreme gentleness Thro' all the outworks of suspicious pride; A courage to endure and to obey;

A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway,

Crown'd Isabel, thro' all her placid life

The queen of marriage, a most perfect wife.

The mellow'd reflex of a winter moon;

A clear stream flowing with a muddy one,
Till in its onward current it absorbs

With swifter movement and in purer light

The vexed eddies of its wayward brother:

A leaning and upbearing parasite,

Clothing the stem, which else had fallen quite, With cluster'd flower-bells and ambrosial orbs

Of rich fruit-bunches leaning on each other—

Shadow forth thee :-the world hath not another (Though all her fairest forms are types of thee,

And thou of God in thy great charity)

Of such a finish'd chasten'd purity.