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,

Frowns perfect-sweet along the brow
Light-glooming over eyes divine
Like little clouds sun-fringed, are thine,

Ever varying Madeline.
Thy smile and frown are not aloof

From one another,

Each to each is dearest brother ; Hues of the silken sheeny woof Momently shot into each other.

All the mystery is thine ; Smiling, frowning, evermore, Thou art perfect in love-lore,

Ever varying Madeline.

A subtle, sudden flame,
By veering passion fann'd,

About thee breaks and dances ;
When I would kiss thy hand,
The flush of anger'd shame

O'erflows thy calmer glances,
And o’er black brows drops down
A sudden-curved frown :

But when I turn away,

Thou, willing me to stay,
Wooest not, nor vainly wranglest ;

But, looking fixedly the while,
All my bounding heart entanglest

In a golden-netted smile ;
Then in madness and in bliss,
If my lips should dare to kiss
Thy taper fingers amorously,
Again thou blushest angerly ;
And o'er black brows drops down
A sudden-curved frown.

SONG.—THE OWL.

When cats run home and light is come,

And dew is cold upon the ground,
And the far-off stream is dumb,

And the whirring sail goes round,
And the whirring sail goes round ;

Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

When merry milkmaids click the latch,

And rarely smells the new-mown hay, And the cock hath sung beneath the thatch

Twice or thrice his roundelay,
Twice or thrice his roundelay :

Alone and warming his five wits,
The white owl in the belfry sits.

SECOND SONG.

TO THE SAME.

Thy tuwhits are lull'd I wot,

Thy tuwhoos of yesternight, Which

upon

the dark afloat,
So took echo with delight,
So took echo with delight,

That her voice untuneful grown,
Wears all day a fainter tone.

I would mock thy chaunt anew ;

But I cannot mimick it ;
Not a whit of thy tuwhoo,

Thee to woo to thy tuwhit,
Thee to woo to thy tuwhit,

With a lengthen'd loud halloo,
Tuwhoo, tuwhit, tuwhit, tuwhoo-o-o.