POEMS. CLARIBEL. A MELODY. Where Claribel low-lieth At eve the beetle boometh Athwart the thicket lone: At noon the wild bee hummeth About the mossed headstone: At midnight the moon cometh And looketh down alone. Her song the lintwhite swelleth, The clear-voiced mavis dwelleth, The callow throstle lispeth, The slumbrous wave outwelleth, The babbling runnel crispeth, The hollow grot replieth Where Claribel low-lieth. LILIAN. Airy, fairy Lilian, Flitting, fairy Lilian, Laughing all she can; Cruel little Lilian. When my passion seeks Pleasance in love-sighs, She, looking through and through me Thoroughly to undo me, Smiling, never speaks: So innocent-arch, so cunning-simple, From beneath her gathered wimple Glancing with black-beaded eyes, Till the lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks; Then away she flies. Prithee weep, May Lilian! . Gayety without eclipse Wearieth me, May Lilian: Through my very heart it thrilleth When from crimson-threaded lips Silver-treble laughter trilleth: Prithee weep, May Lilian. Praying all I can, Airy Lilian, Fairy Lilian. ISABEL. Eyes not down-dropt nor over-bright, but fed Revered Isabel, the crown and head, Of perfect wifehood and pure lowlihead. The intuitive decision of a bright And thorough-edged intellect to part Error from crime; a prudence to withhold; The laws of marriage charactered in gold Of subtle-paced counsel in distress, Winning its way with extreme gentleness The mellowed reflex of a winter moon; With swifter movement and in purer light With clustered flower-bells and ambrosial orbs (Though all her fairest forms are types of thee, And thou of God in thy great charity,) Of such a finished chastened purity. MARIANA. "Mariana in the moated grange."—Measure far Measure. With blackest moss the flower-plots That held the peach to the garden-wall. She only said, "My life is dreary, He cometh not," she said; Ii. Her tears fell with the dews at even; Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; Either at morn or eventide. He cometh not," she said; III. Upon the middle of the night, Waking she heard the night-fowl crow: The cock°sung out an hour ere light: From the dark fen the oxen's low Came to her: without hope of change, In sleep she seemed to walk forlorn, Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn About the lonely moated grange. She only said, " The day is dreary, He cometh not," she said; IV. About a stone-cast from the wall A sluice with blackened waters slept, The clustered marish-mosses crept. He cometh not," she said; v. And the shrill winds were up and away, In the white curtain, to and fro, She saw the gusty shadow sway. She only said, " The night is dreary, |