THE PARTING A PICTURE. BY G. MELLE N. He loved her to the last. And when they parted Which gathered o'er its whiteness-dark, and damp, Have made his pillow like Procrustes' bed, Over his forehead, as the hand of one Their parting was for ever—and her heart Wept like her eyes! She had heard whispers come 216 THE PARTING A PICTURE. She made him at the altar-and his voice But they must part. His call was to a land And shrink those hands to talons, that now lay Again he bent above her, but spake not. LIST! thou child of wind and sea, Tell me of the far off deep, Where the tempest's wing is free, And the waters never sleep. Thou perchance the storm hath aided, In its works of stern despair, Or perchance thy hand hath braided, In deep caves, the mermaid's hair. Wave! now on the golden sands, Silent as thou art, and broken, Bearest thou not from distant strands To my heart some pleasant token? Tales of mountains of the south, Spangles of the ore of silver, Which with playful singing mouth, Thou hast leaped on high to pilfer? Mournful Wave! I deemed thy song And the mighty winds were risen, While the brave and fair were dying. Hast thou seen the hallowed rock, Wreathed with samphire green and roses? Or with joyous playful leap Hast thou been a tribute flinging Up that bold and jutting steep, Pearls upon the south wind stringing? Faded Wave! a joy to thee Now thy flight and toil are over! Oh! may my departure be Calm as thine, thou ocean rover! To be lost away in heaven. A PLEDGE TO THE DYING YEAR. BY M. E. BROOKS. FILL to the brim! one pledge to the past, Fill to the brim! 'tis the saddest and last Wake, the light phantoms of beauty that won us And flash the bright day-beams of promise upon us, Here's to the love-though it flitted away, We can never, no, never forget! Through the gathering darkness of many a day, One pledge will we pour to it yet. Oh, frail as the vision, that witching and tender, And bright on the wanderer broke, When Irem's own beauty in shadowless splendour, Along the wild desert awoke. Fill to the brim! one pledge to the glow Of the heart in its purity warm! |