Now, that you come to me no more, O love, it seems my heart must break.

And these are days! How shall it be
If years must drag the lengthening chain
Of sad and bitter memory?

How shall we live our lives again,

With all its sweetness spent in vain ?— O love, come back once more to me!

BEYOND RECALL.

There was a time when Death and I
Met face to face together:
I was but young indeed to die,
And it was summer weather;
One happy year a wedded wife,
Yet I was slipping out of life.

You knelt beside me, and I heard,
As from some far-off distance,
A bitter cry that dimly stirred

My soul to make resistance.

You thought me dead: you called my name,

And back from Death itself I came.

But oh! that you had made no sign,

That I had heard no crying!

For now the yearning voice is mine,
And there is no replying:

Death never could so cruel be

As Life-and you-have proved to me!

LITTLE MURIEL.

"Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight."

My heart was happy yesterday,
For on the hills the sunshine lay
In golden mist; and common things,
In the sweet bloom that autumn brings,
Grew beautiful, till every sense
Responded to its influence,
And not a leaf upon a tree,
But in its stirring gladdened me.

To-day the mellow sunshine lies
As tenderly along the skies,
And with as rare a splendor fills
The purple hollows of the hills;
But all the joy of yesterday,

And sweet content, have passed away,
Since in my hearing it was said

That little Muriel was dead.

I never loved the child too well

That little pale-faced Muriel;

There was not in her looks or ways

The charm, indeed, to win one's praise;

And, save the natural regret

For youth and death untimely met,

And pity for the mortal strain

Upon a childish heart and brain,

The news, for me, had never made

The glory of the hills to fade;

Had never caused the rustling sheaves
And all the wind-tossed scarlet leaves,
To sigh with such an undertone
Of sorrow for my heart alone,
If I could answer, verily,

That she had borne no wrong from me.

But once, for something lightly heard,
I spoke a harsh and hasty word,

And blamed the child with bitter blame,
And covered her with sudden shame,
Until, dismayed, she crept away,

To sob and grieve the livelong day—
And yet, for any evil meant,

She was entirely innocent.

I knew it afterward, in vain,

And suffered such remorseful pain As one must, in remembering Wrong wrought upon a helpless thing. But still, I set my heart at rest With promises of wrong redressed: "Some time," I said, "I will repay "All that she bore from me that day.

"I will make glad with some surprise "Of sweets or toys, her childish eyes;

66

And my caresses, free and kind,

I Shall blot the trouble from her mind."

I soothed my heart with plans like these,

With petty plans and promises,

Wherewith-since Muriel is dead

I can no more be comforted.

Somewhere in heaven to-day she stands.

And, haply, lifts accusing hands

To God, who sees me here dismayed,
By reason of that debt unpaid;
And knows (as I know, too, alas !)

The opportunities let pass

So carelessly, wherein I could
Have turned my evil into good.

Now, though I sought them tearfully,

They never can return to me;
And neither penitence nor prayer
That one injustice can repair.
Its shadow will surround me yet,
And many a pang of vain regret
And haunting memory will belong
To this irreparable wrong.

Robert Brownmy

ABT VOGLER.

(After he has been extemporizing upon the musical instrument
of his invention.)

I.

Would that the structure brave, the manifold music I build,

Bidding my organ obey, calling its keys to their work,

Claiming each slave of the sound, at a touch, as when Solomon willed

Armies of angels that soar, legions of demons that lurk, Man, brute, reptile, fly,-alien of end and of aim,

Adverse, each from the other heaven-high, hell-deep removed,

Should rush into sight at once as he named the ineffable Name, And pile him a palace straight, to pleasure the princess he loved!

II.

Would it might tarry like his, the beautiful building of mine, This which my keys in a crowd pressed and importuned to raise!

Ah, one and all, how they helped, would dispart now and now combine,

Zealous to hasten the work, heighten their master his praise!