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TIME LONG PAST.

251

TIME LONG PAST.

LIKE the ghost of a dear friend dead
Is time long past.

A tone which is now forever fled,
A hope which is now forever past,
A love so sweet it could not last,
Was time long past.

There were sweet dreams in the night
Of time long past:

And, was it sadness or delight,

Each day a shadow onward cast

Which made us wish it yet might last—
That time long past.

There is regret, almost remorse,

For time long past.

'Tis like a child's beloved corse

A father watches, till at last
Beauty is like remembrance cast
From time long past.

P. B. Shelley.

252

A LAMENT.

A LAMENT.

I STAND where I last stood with thee!
Sorrow, Oh sorrow!

There is not a leaf on the trysting tree;
There is not a joy on the earth for me;
Sorrow, Oh sorrow!

When shalt thou be once again what thou wert?
Oh the sweet yesterdays fled from the heart!

Have they a morrow?

Here we stood, ere we parted, so close side by side;
Two lives that once part are as ships that divide
When, moment on moment there rushes between
The one and the other, a sea;—

Ah, never can fall from the days that have been
A gleam on the years that shall be!

E. Bulwer, Lord Lytton.

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FROM the close-shut windows gleams no spark;
The night is chilly, the night is dark,
The poplars shiver, the pine-trees moan,
My hair by the autumn breeze is blown,
Under thy window I sing alone,
Alone, alone, ah woe! alone!

The darkness is pressing coldly around,
The windows shake with a lonely sound,
The stars are hid and the night is drear,
The heart of silence throbs in mine ear,
In thy chamber thou sittest alone,
Alone, alone, ah woe! alone!

The world is happy, the world is wide,
Kind hearts are beating on every side;
Ah, why should we lie so coldly curled
Alone in the shell of this great world?
Why should we any more be alone?
Alone, alone, ah woe! alone!

O, 'tis a bitter and dreary word,
The saddest by man's ear ever heard!
We each are young, we each have a heart,
Why stand we ever coldly apart?
Must we for ever, then, be alone?

Alone, alone, ah woe! alone!

J. R. Lowell.

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And after that the rustle of a shroud,

And then a creaking door,

And last the coronach, full shrill and loud, Of women clapping hands and weeping sore.

Now Meg knew well that ill was close at hand,
On water or on land,

Because the Glamour touched her lids like breath,
And scorch'd her heart: but in a waking swoon,
Quiet she stayed,— not stirring,—cold as death,
And felt those voices croon;

Then suddenly she heard a human shout,
The hurried falling of a foot without,

Then a hoarse voice-a knocking at the door-
"Meg, Meg! A Ship ashore!"

Now mark the woman! She hath risen her height,
Her dripping plaid is wrapt around her tight;
Tight clenched in her palm her fingers are;
Her eye is steadfast as a fixed star.

One look upon her child—he sleepeth on—
One step unto the door, and she is gone:
Barefooted out into the dark she fares,

And comes where, rubbing eyelids thick with sleep,
The half-clad fishers mingle oaths and prayers,
And look upon the Deep.

Black was the oozy lift,

Black were the sea and land;

Hither and thither, thick with foam and drift,
Did the deep Waters shift,

Swinging with iron clash on stone and sand.

Faintlier the heavy Rain was falling,

Faintlier, faintlier the Wind was calling

THE STORM.

With hollower echoes up the drifting dark! While the swift rockets shooting through the night Flash'd past the foam-flecked reef with phantom light, And showed the piteous outline of the bark, Rising and falling like a living thing,

Shuddering, shivering,

While, howling beastlike, the white breakers there
Spat blindness in the dank eyes of despair.
Then one cried, "She has sunk!"-and on the shore
Men shook, and on the heights the women cried;
But, lo! the outline of the bark once more!

While flashing faint the blue light rose and died.
Ah, GOD, put out Thy hand! all for the sake
Of little ones, and weary hearts that wake!

Be gentle chain the fierce waves with a chain!
Let the gaunt seaman's little boys and girls
Sit on his knee and play with his black curls
Yet once again!

And breathe the frail lad safely through the foam
Back to the hungry mother in her home!

And spare the bad man with the frenzied eye;
Kiss him, for CHRIST's sake, bid Thy Death go by-
He hath no heart to die!

245

Now faintlier blew the wind, the thin rain ceased,
The thick cloud cleared like smoke from off the strand
For, lo! a bright blue glimmer in the East,-

GOD putting out His hand!

And overhead the rack grew thinner too,
And through the smoky gorge

The Wind drave past the stars, and faint they flew
Like sparks blown from a forge!

And now the thousand foam-flames o' the Sea
Hither and thither flashing visibly;

And gray lights hither and thither came and fled,
Like dim shapes searching for the drownëd dead;

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