Part 17 (1/2)

VI.

Oh, hus.h.!.+ Oh, hus.h.!.+ how wild a gush of rapture in the distance,-- A roll of rhymes, a toll of chimes, a cry for love's a.s.sistance; A sound that wells from happy throats, A flood of song where beauty floats, And where our thoughts, like golden boats, do seem to cross a river.

VII.

This is the advent of the lark--the priest in gray apparel-- Who doth prepare to trill in air his sinless Summer carol; This is the prelude to the lay The birds did sing in Caesar's day, And will again, for aye and aye, in praise of G.o.d's creation.

VIII.

O dainty thing, on wonder's wing, by life and love elated, Oh! sing aloud from cloud to cloud, till day be consecrated; Till from the gateways of the morn, The sun, with all his light unshorn, His robes of darkness round him torn, doth scale the lofty heavens!

A BALLAD OF KISSES.

I.

There are three kisses that I call to mind, And I will sing their secrets as I go.

The first, a kiss too courteous to be kind, Was such a kiss as monks and maidens know; As sharp as frost, as blameless as the snow.

II.

The second kiss, ah G.o.d! I feel it yet, And evermore my soul will loathe the same.

The toys and joys of fate I may forget, But not the touch of that divided shame: It clove my lips; it burnt me like a flame.

III.

The third, the final kiss, is one I use Morning and noon and night; and not amiss.

Sorrow be mine if such I do refuse!

And when I die, be love, enrapt in bliss, Re-sanctified in Heaven by such a kiss.

MARY ARDEN.

I.

O thou to whom, athwart the perish'd days And parted nights long sped, we lift our gaze, Behold! I greet thee with a modern rhyme, Love-lit and reverent as befits the time, To solemnize the feast-day of thy son.

II.