Year after year, as sure as birds' returning, mould; Year after year, in work, or mirth, or mourning, Love we with love's own youth, that never can grow old. Sweetheart and ladye-love, queen of boyish passion, Strong hope of manhood, content of age begun ; Loved in a hundred ways, each in a different fashion, Yet loved supremely, solely, as we never love but one. Dearest and bonniest! though blanched those curling tresses, Though loose clings the wedding-ring to that thin hand of thine,— Brightest of all eyes the eye that love expresses! Sweetest of all lips the lips long since kissed mine! So let the world go round with all its sighs and sinning, Its mad shout o'er fancied bliss, its howl o'er pleasures past: That which it calls love's end to us was love's beginning: I clasp my arms about thy neck and love thee to the last. AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, Thirty Years. (Macmillan.) That it is a good Custom, as well as an old-- That not e'en in thought, did we ever transgress. No woman, save Nell, has attractions for me; As to wishing that we were unmarried again,— Three times did I marry the FLITCH to obtain— We've not had a wrong word for a Year and a WILLIAM HARRISON AINSWORTH. A YEAR AND A DAY. A YEAR and a Day is the period named When, according to Custom, the FLITCH may be claimed ; Provided the parties can swear and can prove, They have lived the whole time in true conjugal love. 'Tis a very old Custom of ours at Dunmow,Fitzwalter established it ages ago: Its antiquity, sure, can be doubted by no man, Since 'tis mentioned by Chaucer, and trusty Piers Plowman. AH! thou art no more thine own. That yet, O love, thou would'st not have again. JEAN INGELOW. For whom the precious, homely hearth would serve as well? There, with the early breaking morn Ere quite the day is born, The lustral waters flow serene, And each again grows clean From sleep, as from a tomb, Born to another dawn of joy, and hope, and doom. There through the sweet and toilsome day There love with kindly beaming eyes And voice and innocent smile Of childhood do our cheerful liturgies beguile. There, at his chaste and frugal feast, And with mild eyes and mien sedate, And round the holy table Paten and chalice range in order serviceable. 'Twixt birth and death, from sorrow free, And that, O lady of my rhyme! I passed with thee. MORTIMER COLLINS. Frances. TO HIS WIFE, On the Anniversary of her Wedding-day, which was also her Birthday, with a ring. "THEE, Mary, with this ring I wed "- With that first ring I married youth, I plead that double merit now, Here then to-day, with faith as sure, I took thy troth, and plighted mine, Those virtues which, before untried, And why? They show me every hour, Honour's high thought, Affection's power, Discretion's deed, sound Judgment's sentence, And teach me all things-but repentance. SAMUEL BISHOP. WEDDED LOVERS. FRIEND, Counsellor, companion, wife, Cherished for Love, in this, and after, life: Reflective, prudent, wise, and sweetly kind: A generous heart, a liberal hand and mind: Giving a ready help to each who needs : Though to her "household " first, as wise and just ; Yielding with grace, and not because she must: While she, of greater troubles, takes her share, She treats the lesser as the garden weeds, To be removed, and yet with gentle care, That flowers as well are not uprooted there. Thus Love endures through all a chequered life, In calm, in sunshine, or when tempest-tost: THE HUSBAND FOUND, A LOVER IS NOT LOST, THE SWEETHEART STILL REMAINS A SWEETHEART WIFE! S. C. HALL. Rhymes in Council. (Griffith and Farran.) SONG. I LOOK into the eyes I love, And watch the old love beaming, And call from out the buried years The old, old lover's dreaming. Just here and there one line of grey Divides the raven tresses, I sigh-Youth fades apace-I smile, The love that blest, still blesses! SEBASTIAN EVANS. Brother Fabian's Manuscript. (Macmillan.) AFTER MARRIAGE. AND then I slept, and all day dreamed of her, I heard in sleep her soft lips move and sigh, Murmuring in dreams some last night's memory, And once, in love, she clasped her own long hair. There, like some soul that lieth near to death, Waiting the opening of its native skies, I lay, and watched her death-like fluttering breath, THE WORN WEDDING-RING. YOUR wedding-ring wears thin, dear wife; ah, summers not a few, Since I put it on your finger first, have pass'd o'er me and you; And, love, what changes we have seen-what cares and pleasures, too— Since you became my own dear wife, when this old ring was new. O, blessings on that happy day, the happiest of my life, When, thanks to God, your low, sweet "Yes" made you my loving wife; Your heart will say the same, I know; that day's as dear to you,— That day that made me yours, dear wife, when this old ring was new. How well do I remember now your young sweet face that day; How fair you were-how dear you were—my tongue could hardly say; Nor how I doated on you; ah, how proud I was of you; But did I love you more than now, when this old ring was new? And O, when death shall come at last to bid me to my rest, No-no; no fairer were you then than at this hour to me, And, dear as life to me this day, how could you May I die looking in those eyes, and resting on dearer be? that breast; As sweet your face might be that day as now it is, O, may my parting gaze be bless'd with the dear 'tis true, But did I know your heart as well when this old ring was new? O partner of my gladness, wife, what care, what grief is there, For me you would not bravely face, with me you would not share? O what a weary want had every day, if wanting you, Wanting the love that God made mine when this old ring was new! Years bring fresh links to bind us, wife, young voices that are here, Young faces round our fire that make their mother's yet more dear, Young, loving hearts, your care each day makes yet more like to you, More like the loving heart made mine when this old ring was new. And, bless'd be God! all He has given are with us yet; around Our table, every little life lent to us still is found; Though cares we've known, with hopeful hearts the worst we've struggled through; Bless'd be His name for all His love since this old ring was new. The past is dear; its sweetness still our memories treasure yet; The griefs we've borne, together borne, we would not now forget; Whatever, wife, the future brings, heart unto heart still true, We'll share as we have shared all else since this old ring was new. And if God spare us 'mongst our sons and daughters to grow old, We know His goodness will not let your heart or mine grow cold; Your aged eyes will see in mine all they've still shown to you, sight of you, Of those fond eyes-fond as they were when this old ring was new. W. C. BENNETT. Baby May, &c. (K. Paul.) LOVE WRECKED IN CALM WATER. That stood the storm, when waves were rough, Like ships that have gone down at sea, A word unkind or wrongly taken- A breath, a touch like this has shaken. As though its waters ne'er could sever, THOMAS MOORE. THE SUMMIT. Now on life's crest we breathe the temperate air; And mine in yours all they have seen since this | Dear, we shall never bid the Sphinx despair, old ring was new. Nor read in Sibyl's book. The blue bends o'er us; good are night and day; And what great word Life's singing lips pronounce, Enough one thing we know; haply anon All truths, yet no truth better or more clear Than that your hand holds my hand. Therefore on ! The downward pathway, dear! EDWARD DOWDEN. SOMETHING WANTING. PERCHANCE 'twas the fault of the life that they led ; Perchance 'twas the fault of the novels they read; Perchance 'twas a fault in themselves; I am bound not To say this I know-that these two creatures found not In each other some sign they expected to find Of a something unnamed in the heart or the mind; And, missing it, each felt a right to complain Of a sadness which each found no word to explain. Whatever it was, the world noticed not it In the light-hearted beauty, the light-hearted wit. Still, as once with the actors in Greece, 'tis the case, Each must speak to the crowd with a mask on his face. Praise follow'd Matilda wherever she went. She was flatter'd. Can flattery purchase content ? Yes. While to its voice, for a moment she listen'd, The young cheek still bloom'd, and the soft eye still glisten'd; And her lord, when, like one of those light vivid things That glide down the gauzes of summer with wings Of rapturous radiance, unconscious she moved Through that buzz of inferior creatures, which proved Her beauty, their envy, one moment forgot 'Mid the many charms there, the one charm that was not: And when o'er her beauty enraptured he bow'd, (As they turned to each other, each flush'd from the crowd), And murmur'd those praises which yet seem'd more dear Than the praises of others had grown to her ear, She, too, ceased awhile her own fate to regret : "Yes! . . . he loves me," she sigh'd; "this is love, then-and yet!" Ah, that yet! fatal word! 'tis the moral of all Thought and felt, seen or done, in this world since the Fall! It stands at the end of each sentence we learn ; Lucile. (Chapman and Hall.) TO HIS WIFE. OH! hadst thou never shared my fate, My heart were truly desolate But thou hast suffered for my sake, My fond affection thou hast seen, To think more happy thou hadst been And has that thought been shared by thee? |