More need of words that ills abate;

Reserve or censure come not near Our sacred friendship, lest there be No solace left for thee and me.

VI.

Gentle and good and mild thou art,
Nor can I live if thou appear
Aught but thyself, or turn thine heart
Away from me, or stoop to wear
The mask of scorn, although it be
To hide the love thou feel'st for me.

OET of N

know

That thing

may re

Childhood and youth, first glow,

Have fled like sweet d

mourn.

These common woes I

Which thou too feel'st,

Thou wert as a lone shine

On some frail bark in wi Thou hast like to a rock Above the blind and bat In honoured poverty thy Songs consecrate to truth Deserting these, thou lea Thus having been, that

be.

324

Mutability

E are as clouds that veil the mid

night moon;

How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,

Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon Night closes round, and they are lost for

ever :

Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings. Give various response to each varying blast, To whose frail frame no second motion brings One mood or modulation like the last.

We rest. A dream has power to poison

sleep;

We rise. One wandering thought pollutes

the day;

We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:

It is the same! - For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man's yesterday may ne'er be like this mor-

row;

Nought may endure but Mutability.

On Death

"There is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest."- Ecclesiastes.

Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle,

Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light,

Is the flame of life so fickle and wan

That flits round our steps till their strength is

gone.

O man! hold thee on in courage of soul Through the stormy shades of thy worldly

way,