PROSE AND POETRY. 7$ 



Then the quick steel mangled, 



Fire and water slew, 

 And the dying strangled 



What the living left ! 

 Wreck upon the ocean, 



Ruin on the land, 

 Solemn earthquake's motion 



Lightning's winged fire ; 

 Storm along the mountain, 



Deluge down the vale, 

 Stream and lake and fountain 



Deadly bound in snow ; 



These start fears and anguish 



Breathing life repels, 

 Waste the brain to languish, 



Rack it to despair ; 

 But they cannot mutter 



Horrors, nor endure 

 Fixed, eternal, utter 



As the woes of love ! 



Transport of the spirit, 



Unction of the heart, 

 Life's devoutest merit, 



Genius of the soul ! 

 Love ! essential beauty, 



Marvel of the spheres ! 

 Happy, what can boot ye ? 



What redeem forlorn ? 



But the pomp is over, 



And the fire is fed, 

 None may find the lover, 



None his noble love, 

 Those their ashes ! Never 



Leave them to the winds, 

 Demons would not sever , 



What are join'd so well ! 



Bear them 'neath the willow 



She once fondly reared, 

 Where the gentle billow 



Moans reluctant by ; 

 There at sunset wiling 



Oft they sat and loved ; 

 There the sun still smiling 



Warms their pitied grave. 



The music ceased, and the day broke. As I stood, half wrapt in the 

 romance, the young minstrel hurried by me, enveloped in a wide 

 flowing ample cloak; while a fair hand, just withdrawn from the 

 lattice, showed that his strain had been welcome to the ears it was 

 meant for. G. L. S. 



