Volume Iii Part 27 (1/2)

Once I was part of the music I heard On the boughs or sweet between earth and sky, For joy of the beating of wings on high My heart shot into the breast of the bird.

I hear it now and I see it fly, And a life in wrinkles again is stirred, My heart shoots into the breast of the bird, As it will for sheer love till the last long sigh.

TO A FRIEND LOST (TOM TAYLOR)

When I remember, friend, whom lost I call, Because a man beloved is taken hence, The tender humour and the fire of sense In your good eyes; how full of heart for all, And chiefly for the weaker by the wall, You bore that lamp of sane benevolence; Then see I round you Death his shadows dense Divide, and at your feet his emblems fall.

For surely are you one with the white host, Spirits, whose memory is our vital air, Through the great love of Earth they had: lo, these, Like beams that throw the path on tossing seas, Can bid us feel we keep them in the ghost, Partakers of a strife they joyed to share.

M. M.

Who call her Mother and who calls her Wife Look on her grave and see not Death but Life.

THE LADY C. M.

To them that knew her, there is vital flame In these the simple letters of her name.

To them that knew her not, be it but said, So strong a spirit is not of the dead.

ON THE TOMBSTONE OF JAMES CHRISTOPHER WILSON (d. APRIL 11, 1884) IN HEADLEY CHURCHYARD, SURREY

Thou our beloved and light of Earth hast crossed The sea of darkness to the yonder sh.o.r.e.

There dost thou s.h.i.+ne a light transferred, not lost, Through love to kindle in our souls the more.

GORDON OF KHARTOUM

Of men he would have raised to light he fell: In soul he conquered with those nerveless hands.

His country's pride and her abas.e.m.e.nt knell The Man of England circled by the sands.

J. C. M.

A fountain of our sweetest, quick to spring In fellows.h.i.+p abounding, here subsides: And never pa.s.sage of a cloud on wing To gladden blue forgets him; near he hides.