TO A FRIEND IN BEREAVEMENT.

O comfort, nay, no comfort. Yet would I

In Sorrow's cause with Sorrow intercede.
Burst not the great heart,—this is all I plead;

Ah, sentence it to suffer, not to die.

"Comfort?" If Jesus wept at Bethany-

That doze and nap of Death-how may we bleed
Who watch the long sleep that is sleep indeed!
Pointing to Heaven I but remind you why

On earth you still must mourn. He who, being bold
For life-to-come, is false to the past sweet
Of mortal life, hath killed the world above.

For why to live again if not to meet?

And why to meet if not to meet in love?

And why in love if not in that dear love of old?

SYDNEY DOBELL

.

AD MATREM.

(MARCH 13, 1862.)

FT in the after-days, when thou and I
Have fallen from the scope of human view,

When, both together, under the sweet sky

We sleep beneath the daisies and the dew,
Men will recall thy gracious presence bland,
Conning the pictured sweetness of thy face;
Will pore o'er paintings by thy plastic hand,
And vaunt thy skill, and tell thy deeds of grace.

Oh may they then, who crown thee with true bays,
Saying, "What love unto her son she bore!"
Make this addition to thy perfect praise,
"Nor ever yet was mother worshipped more !”
So shall I live with thee, and thy dear fame
Shall link my love unto thine honoured name.

}

AD MATREM.

(MARCH 13, 1864.)

USIC, and frankincense of flowers, belong
To this sweet festival of all the year.

Take, then, the latest blossom of my song,

And to Love's canticle incline thine ear.

What is it that Love chaunts? thy perfect praise.
What is it that Love prays? worthy to prove.
What is it Love desires? thy length of days.
What is it that Love asks? return of love.
Ah, what requital can Love ask more dear
Than by Love's priceless self to be repaid?
Thy liberal love, increasing year by year,
Hath granted more than all my heart hath prayed,
And, prodigal as Nature, makes me pine

To think how poor my love compared with thine !
JULIAN FANE.

P

AD MATREM.

(MARCH 13, 1870.)

O, like a wanderer from the world of shades,
Back to the firm earth and familiar skies,

Back to that light of love that never fades—

The unbroken sunshine of thy blissful eyes,

I come to greet thee on this happy day
That lets a fresh pearl on thy life appear;
That decks thy jewelled age with fresh array
Of good deeds done within the circled year;
So art thou robed in majesty of grace,
In regal purple of pure womanhood;
Throned in thy high pre-eminence of place;
Sceptred and crowned, a very Queen of Good.
Receive my blessing, perfect as thou art,

Queen of all good, and sovereign of my heart.

JULIAN FANE.

A DISAPPOINTMENT.

PRING, of a sudden, came to life one day.
Ere this, the winter had been cold and chill.
That morning first the summer air did fill
The world, making bleak March seem almost May.
The daffodils were blooming golden gay;

The birch trees budded purple on the hill;
The rose, that clambered up the window-sill,
Put forth a crimson shoot. All yesterday
The winds about the casement chilly blew,

But now the breeze that played about the door,

So caught the dead leaves that I thought there flew
Brown butterflies up from the grassy floor.

-But someone said you came not. Ah, too true!
And I, I thought that winter reigned once more.

ALICE MARy Blunt.