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THE BELLS OF LYNN,

HEARD AT NAHANT.

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CURFEW of the setting sun! O Bells of
Lynn !

O requiem of the dying day! O Bells of

Lynn!

From the dark belfries of yon cloud-cathedral

wafted,

Your sounds aërial seem to float, O Bells of

Lynn !

Borne on the evening wind across the crimson

twilight,

O'er land and sea they rise and fall, O Bells of

Lynn!

The Bells of Lynn.

35

The fisherman in his boat, far out beyond the

headland,

Listens, and leisurely rows ashore, O Bells of Lynn !

Over the shining sands the wandering cattle

homeward

Follow each other at your call, O Bells of Lynn!

The distant lighthouse hears, and with his flaming signal

Answers you, passing the watchword on, O Bells of Lynn!

And down the darkening coast run the tumul

tuous surges,

And clap their hands, and shout to you, 0 Bells of Lynn!

36

The Bells of Lynn.

Till from the shuddering sea, with your wild

incantations,

Ye summon up the spectral moon, O Bells of Lynn !

And startled at the sight, like the weird woman

of Endor,

Ye cry aloud, and then are still, O Bells of

Lynn!

H

KILLED AT THE FORD.

E is dead, the beautiful youth,

The heart of honour, the tongue of truth,

He, the life and light of us all,

Whose voice was blithe as a bugle-call,

Whom all eyes followed with one consent,

The cheer of whose laugh, and whose pleasant

word,

Hushed all murmurs of discontent.

Only last night, as we rode along
Down the dark of the mountain gap,
To visit the picket-guard at the ford,
Little dreaming of any mishap,

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Killed at the Ford.

He was humming the words of some old song: "Two red roses he had on his cap,

And another he bore at the point of his sword."

Sudden and swift a whistling ball

Came out of a wood, and the voice was still;
Something I heard in the darkness fall,
And for a moment my blood grew chill;
I spake in a whisper, as he who speaks
In a room where some one is lying dead;
But he made no answer to what I said.

We lifted him up to his saddle again,

And through the mire and the mist and the rain Carried him back to the silent camp,

And laid him as if asleep on his bed;

And I saw by the light of the surgeon's lamp

Two white roses upon his cheeks,

And one, just over his heart, blood-red!

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