There groups of merry children played, There youths and maidens dreaming strayed; O precious hours! O golden prime, And affluence of love and time! Even as a miser counts his gold, Those hours the ancient timepiece told,— "For ever-never! Never-for ever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The bride came forth on her wedding night; There, in that silent room below, The dead lay in his shroud of snow; And in the hush that followed the prayer, Was heard the old clock on the stair, "For ever-never! Never for ever!" All are scattered now and fled, Never here, for ever there, Where all parting, pain, and care, And death, and time shall disappear,— For ever there, but never here! The horologe of Eternity Sayeth this incessantly, "For ever-never! Never for ever!" THE ARROW AND THE SONG. I SHOT an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; I breathed a song into the air, Long, long afterward, in an oak THE EVENING STAR. Lo! in the painted oriel of the West, Of all her radiant garments, and reclines Behind the sombre screen of yonder pines, With slumber and soft dreams of love oppressed. O my beloved, my sweet Hesperus ! My morning and my evening star of love! My best and gentlest lady! even thus, As that fair planet in the sky above, Dost thou retire unto thy rest at night, And from thy darkened window fades the light. AUTUMN. THOU Comest, Autumn, heralded by the rain, |