THE LOST LOVE.

SHE

HE dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove;

A maid whom there were none to praise,
And very few to love.

A violet by a mossy stone

Half-hidden from the eye! -Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know
When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and O!
The difference to me!

A PORTRAIT.

SHE

HE was a phantom of delight

When first she gleamed upon my sight;

A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment's ornament;

Her eyes as stars of twilight fair;
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,
A spirit, yet a woman too!
Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;

A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food,
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,
Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death:
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill;
A perfect woman, nobly planned
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of an angel-light.

BY THE SEA.

Τ

IT is a beauteous evening, calm and free;
The holy time is quiet as a nun
Breathless with adoration; the broad sun
Is sinking down in its tranquillity;
The gentleness of heaven is on the Sea;
Listen! the mighty being is awake,
And doth with his eternal motion make
A sound like thunder-everlastingly.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

RIME OF THE ANCIENT

AN Ancient Mariner meeteth three gallants bidden to a weddingfeast, and detaineth one.

The Wedding Guest is spellbound by the eye of the old seafaring man, and constrained to hear his tale.

IN SEVEN PARTS.

PART I.

MARINER.

IT

T is an Ancient Mariner,

And he stoppeth one of three:

"By thy long gray beard and glittering eye, Now wherefore stopp'st thou me?

"The Bridegroom's doors are opened wide, And I am next of kin ;

The guests are met, the feast is set-
Mayst hear the merry din."

He holds him with his skinny hand:
"There was a ship," quoth he.
"Hold off! unhand me, gray-beard loon!"
Eftsoons his hand dropt he.

He holds him with his glittering eye-
The Wedding-Guest stood still;
He listens like a three years' child :
The Mariner hath his will.

The Wedding-Guest sat on a stone-
He cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner:

"The ship was cheered, the harbour cleared; Merrily did we drop

Below the kirk, below the hill,
Below the light-house top.

"The sun came up upon the left,
Out of the sea came he;

And he shone bright, and on the right
Went down into the sea;

"Higher and higher every day,

""

Till over the mast at noon

The Wedding-Guest here beat his breast,
For he heard the loud bassoon.

The bride hath paced into the hall-
Red as a rose is she;

Nodding their heads before her goes
The merry minstrelsy.

The Wedding-Guest he beat his breast,
Yet he cannot choose but hear;

And thus spake on that ancient man,
The bright-eyed Mariner:

"And now the Storm-blast came, and he

Was tyrannous and strong;

He struck with his o'ertaking wings,

And chased us south along.

"With sloping masts and dipping prow—
As who pursued with yell and blow
Still treads the shadow of his foe,

The Mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather, till it reached the Line.

The WeddingGuest heareth the bridal music; but the Mariner continueth his tale.

The ship drawn by a storm toward the south

pole.

The land of ice, and of fearful sounds, where no living thing was to be seen.

Till a great seabird, called the Albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality.

And forward bends his head

The ship drove fast; loud roared the blast,
And southward Aed.

aye we

"And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold;

And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

And lo! the Albatross proveth a bird of good omen, and followeth the ship as it returned northward through fog and floating ice.

"And through the drifts the snowy cliffs Did send a dismal sheen;

Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken—
The ice was all between.

"The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around;

It cracked and growled, and roared and

howled,

Like noises in a swound!

"At length did cross an Albatross———
Thorough the fog it came;

As if it had been a Christian soul,
We hailed it in God's name.

"It ate the food it ne'er had eat,
And round and round it flew :
The ice did split with a thunder-fit—
The helmsman steered us through!

<<

"And a good south wind sprang up behind; The Albatross did follow,

And every day, for food or play,

Came to the mariners' hollo!