Alas, and though the end were reach'd?...

Was thy part understood

Or borne in trust?

And for her sake

Shall this too be found good?

May the close lips that knew not prayer
Praise ever, though they would?)

"We two," she said, "will seek the groves
Where the lady Mary is,

With her five handmaidens, whose names
Are five sweet symphonies:-
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
Margaret and Rosalys.

"Circle-wise sit they, with bound locks

And bosoms covered;

Into the fine cloth, white like flame,
Weaving the golden thread,

To fashion the birth-robes for them.
Who are just born, being dead.

"He shall fear, haply, and be dumb.
Then I will lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
Not once abash'd or weak:
And the dear Mother will approve
My pride, and let me speak.

"Herself shall bring us, hand in hand, To Him round whom all souls

Kneel the unnumber'd solemn heads
Bow'd with their aureoles:

And Angels, meeting us, shall sing
To their citherns and citoles.

"There will I ask of Christ the Lord
Thus much for him and me:-
To have more blessing than on earth
In nowise; but to be

As then we were,-being as then
At peace. Yea, verily.

"Yea, verily; when he is come
We will do thus and thus:

Till this my vigil seem quite strange
And almost fabulous;

We two will live at once, one life;
And peace shall be with us."

She gazed, and listen'd, and then said,
Less sad of speech than mild,—
"All this is when he comes." She ceased:
The light thrill'd past her, fill'd

With Angels, in strong level lapsc.
Her eyes pray'd, and she smiled.

(I saw her smile.) But soon their flight
Was vague 'mid the poised spheres.
And then she cast her arms along
The golden barriers,

And laid her face between her hands,
And wept. (I heard her tears.)

THE MADMAN

BY L. A. G. STRONG

I think I'll do a fearful deed
Of wickedness and cruelty,

And then, if Father Walsh speaks truth,
Jesus will weep a tear for me:

And I will catch it in my hat

Just here outside my cabin door,

And put it on my little field

Where nothing ever grew before.

And it will sprout so fine and brave,
That lovely birds with yellow bills
Will come to pluck my crowded corn
From all the Seven Holy Hills.

From HEROD

BY STEPHEN Phillips

Herod speaks:

I dreamed last night of a dome of beaten gold To be a counter-glory to the Sun.

There shall the eagle blindly dash himself,

There the first beam shall strike, and there the moon
Shall aim all night her argent archery;
And it shall be the tryst of sundered stars,
The haunt of dead and dreaming Solomon;
Shall send a light upon the lost in Hell,
And flashings upon faces without hope.-
And I will think in gold and dream in silver,
Imagine in marble and conceive in bronze,
Till it shall dazzle pilgrim nations

And stammering tribes from undiscovered lands,
Allure the living God out of the bliss,
And all the streaming seraphim from heaven.

THE POET'S DREAM

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

On a Poet's lips I slept

Dreaming like a love-adept

In the sound his breathing kept;

Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses,

But feeds on the aërial kisses

Of shapes that haunt Thought's wildernesses.
He will watch from dawn to gloom

The lake-reflected sun illume

The yellow bees in the ivy-bloom,

Nor heed nor see what things they be

But from these create he can

Forms more real than living Man,

Nurselings of Immortality!

WHERE IS FANCY BRED?

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Tell me where is Fancy bred,
Or in the heart or in the head?
How begot, how nourished?
Reply, reply.

It is engender'd in the eyes,
With gazing fed; and Fancy dies.
In the cradle where it lies.

Let us all ring Fancy's knell :
I'll begin it,-Ding, dong, bell.
Ding, dong, bell.

FANCY

BY JOHN KEATS

Ever let the Fancy roam,

Pleasure never is at home:

At a touch sweet Pleasure melteth,
Like to bubbles when rain pelteth;

Then let wingèd Fancy wander

Through the thought still spread beyond her:

Open wide the mind's cage-door,

She'll dart forth, and cloudward soar.

O sweet Fancy! let her loose;
Summer's joys are spoilt by use,
And the enjoying of the Spring
Fades as does its blossoming: