A DREAM WITHIN A DREAM.

I.

TAKE this kiss upon the brow;
And in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow:

You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;

Yet if hope has flown away
In a night or in a day,

In a vision or in none,

Is it therefore the less gone?

All that we see or seem

Is but a dream within a dream.

O God, can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God, can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?

SILENCE.

THERE are some qualities, some incorporate things, That have a double life, which thus is made

A type of that twin entity which springs

From matter and light, evinced in solid and shade. There is a twofold Silence-sea and shore

Body and soul. One dwells in lonely places

Newly with grass o'ergrown; some solemn graces, Some human memories and tearful lore,

Render him terrorless: his name's "No more."
He is the corporate Silence: dread him not!
No power hath he of evil in himself;
But should some urgent fate (untimely lot!)

Bring thee to meet his shadow-nameless elf,
That haunteth the lone regions where hath trod
No foot of man,-commend thyself to God!

85092B

THE CONQUEROR WORM.

I.

Lo! 'tis a gala night

Within the lonesome latter years!
An angel throng, bewinged, bedight
In veils, and drowned in tears,
Sit in a theatre, to see

A play of hopes and fears,

While the orchestra breathes fitfully

The music of the spheres.

II.

Mimes, in the form of God on high,
Mutter and mumble low,

And hither and thither fly;

Mere puppets they, who come and go

At bidding of vast formless things,
That shift the scenery to and fro,

Flapping from out their condor wings
Invisible woe!

III.

That motley drama-O, be sure

It shall not be forgot;