Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care, Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair; Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!
I am so weary of toil and of tears,-
Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,-
Take them, and give me my childhood again!
I have grown weary of dust and decay,—
Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;
Weary of sowing for others to reap;-
Rock me to sleep, mother,― rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,
Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!
Many a summer the grass has grown green,
Blossomed, and faded our faces between,
Yet with strong yearning and passionate pain
Long I to-night for your presence again.
Come from the silence so long and so deep;-
Rock me to sleep, mother,— rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,
No love like mother-love ever has shone;
No other worship abides and endures,-
Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:
None like a mother can charm away pain
From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.
Slumber's soft calms o'er my heavy lids creep;-
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,
Fall on your shoulders again as of old;

Let it drop over my forehead to-night,
Shading my faint eyes away from the light;
For with its sunny-edged shadows once more
Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;
Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;―
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long
Since I last listened your lullaby song:

Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem
Womanhood's years have been only a dream.
Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,
With your light lashes just sweeping my face,
Never hereafter to wake or to weep;-
Rock me to sleep, mother, rock me to sleep!

SHE AND HE

BY EDWIN ARNOLD

"Come away;

"She is dead!" they said to him.
Kiss her! and leave her!-thy love is clay!"

They smoothed her tresses of dark brown hair;
On her forehead of marble they laid it fair:

Over her eyes, which gazed too much,
They drew the lids with a gentle touch;

With a tender touch they closed up well
The sweet thin lips that had secrets to tell;

About her brows, and her dear, pale face
They tied her veil and her marriage-lace;

And drew on her white feet her white silk shoes;-
Which were the whiter no eye could choose!

And over her bosom they crossed her hands;
"Come away," they said, "God understands!"

And then there was Silence; —and nothing there
But the Silence—and scents of eglantere,

And jasmine, and roses, and rosemary;

For they said, "As a lady should lie, lies she!"

And they held their breath as they left the room, With a shudder to glance at its stillness and gloom.

But he who loved her too well to dread

The sweet, the stately, the beautiful dead,—

He lit his lamp, and took the key,

And turn'd it!- Alone again—he and she!

He and she; but she would not speak,

Though he kiss'd, in the old place, the quiet cheek;

He and she; yet she would not smile,

Though he call'd her the name that was fondest erewhile.

He and she; and she did not move

To any one passionate whisper of love!

Then he said, "Cold lips! and breast without breath!

Is there no voice?·

no language of death

"Dumb to the ear and still to the sense

But to heart and to soul distinct, - intense?

[ocr errors]

"See, now,
What was the secret of dying, Dear?

I listen with soul, not ear

"Was it the infinite wonder of all,
That you ever could let life's flower fall?

"Or was it a greater marvel to feel
The perfect calm o'er the agony steal?

"Was the miracle greatest to find how deep, Beyond all dreams, sank downward that sleep? "Did life roll backward its record, Dear,

And show, as they say it does, past things clear?

"And was it the innermost heart of the bliss To find out so what a wisdom love is?

"Oh, perfect Dead! oh, Dead most dear,
I hold the breath of my soul to hear;

"I listen as deep as to horrible hell,
As high as to heaven!- and you do not tell!

"There must be pleasures in dying, Sweet,
To make you so placid from head to feet!

"I would tell you, Darling, if I were dead,
And 'twere your hot tears upon my brow shed.

"I would say though the angel of death had laid His sword on my lips to keep it unsaid.

"You should not ask, vainly, with streaming eyes, Which in Death's touch was the chiefest surprise;

"The very strangest and suddenest thing Of all the surprises that dying must bring."

Ah! foolish world! Oh! most kind Dead!

Though he told me, who will believe it was said?

Who will believe that he heard her say,

With the soft rich voice, in the dear old way:

I hear,

"The utmost wonder is this,
And see you, and love you, and kiss you,

Dear;

"I can speak, now you listen with soul alone; If your soul could see, it would all be shown.

"What a strange delicious amazement is Death, To be without body and breathe without breath. "I should laugh for joy if you did not cry; Oh, listen! Love lasts! - Love never will die.

"I am only your Angel who was your Bride; And I know, that though dead, I have never died."

WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY

BY SIR ROBERT AYTON

I loved thee once, I'll love no more,
Thine be the grief as is the blame;
Thou art not what thou wast before,
What reason I should be the same?

« ZurückWeiter »