Build it again, O ye bards, Fairer than before! Ye fathers of the new race, The law of force is dead! Shall rule the earth no more, Sing no more, O ye bards of the North, SONNET ON MRS. KEMBLE'S READINGS FROM SHAKSPEARE. O PRECIOUS evenings! all too swiftly sped! And giving tongues unto the silent dead! How our hearts glowed and trembled as she read, Interpreting by tones the wondrous pages Of the great poet who foreruns the ages, Anticipating all that shall be said! O happy Reader! having for thy text The magic book, whose Sibylline leaves have caught The rarest essence of all human thought! O happy Poet! by no critic vext! How must thy listening spirit now rejoice THE SINGERS. GOD sent his Singers upon earth The first, a youth, with soul of fire, Through groves he wandered, and by streams, The second, with a bearded face, A grey, And those who heard the Singers three But the great Master said, "I see To charm, to strengthen, and to teach. "These are the three great chords of might, And he whose ear is tuned aright Will hear no discord in the three, SUSPIRIA. TAKE them, O Death! and bear away Take them, O Grave! and let them lie Take them, O great Eternity! That bends the branches of thy tree, And trails its blossoms in the dust! HYMN FOR MY BROTHER'S ORDINATION. CHRIST to the young man said: "Yet one thing more; If thou wouldst perfect be, Sell all thou hast and give it to the poor, And come and follow me!" Within this temple Christ again, unseen, And evermore beside him on his way That he may lean upon his arm and say, Beside him at the marriage-feast shall be, O holy trust! O endless sense of rest! To lay his head upon the Saviour's breast, THE BLIND GIRL OF CASTEL CUILLE. FROM THE GASCON OF JAZMIN.21 Only the Lowland tongue of Scotland might Let me attempt it with an English quill; I. Ar the foot of the mountain height When the apple, the plum, and the almond tree, On a Wednesday morn of Saint Joseph's Eve: "The roads should blossom, the roads should bloom, So fair a bride shall leave her home! Should blossom and bloom with garlands gay, So fair a bride shall pass to-day!" This old Te Deum, rustic rites attending, When lo! a merry company Of rosy village girls, clean as the eye, Each one with her attendant swain, Came to the cliff, all singing the same strain; |