Despondency and Aspiration.

"So fade, fade on! Thy gift of love shall cling, A coiling sadness round thy heart and brainA silent, fruitless, yet undying thing,

All sensitive to pain!

And still the shadow of vain dreams shall fall
O'er thy mind's world, a daily darkening pall.
Fold, then, thy wounded wing, and sink subdued
In cold and unrepining quietude!"

Then my soul yielded: spells of numbing breath
Crept o'er it heavy with a dew of death-

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Its powers, like leaves before the night-rain, closing;
And, as by conflict of wild sea-waves, tossed
On the chill bosom of some desert coast,
Mutely and hopelessly I lay reposing.

When silently it seemed

As if a soft mist gleamed

Before my passive sight, and, slowly curling,

To many a shape and hue

Of visioned beauty grew,

Like a wrought banner, fold by fold unfurling.
Oh! the rich scenes that o'er mine inward eye

Unrolling then swept by

With dreamy motion! Silvery seas were there,
Lit by large dazzling stars, and arched by skies
Of southern midnight's most transparent dyes;
And gemmed with many an island, wildly fair,
Which floated past me into orient day,
Still gathering lustre on th' illumined way,
Till its high groves of wondrous flowering-trees
Coloured the silvery seas.

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Despondency and Aspiration.

And then a glorious mountain-chain uprose,
Height above spiry height!

A soaring solitude of woods and snows,
All steeped in golden light!

While as it passed, those regal peaks unveiling,

I heard, methought, a waving of dread wings,

And mighty sounds, as if the vision hailing,

From lyres that quivered through ten thousand stringsOr as if waters, forth to music leaping

From many a cave, the Alpine Echo's hall,
On their bold way victoriously were sweeping,
Linked in majestic anthems!—while through all
That billowy swell and fall,

Voices, like ringing crystal, filled the air
With inarticulate melody, that stirred

My being's core; then, moulding into word
Their piercing sweetness, bade me rise, and bear
In that great choral strain my trembling part,
Of tones by love and faith struck from a human heart.

Return no more, vain bodings of the night!

A happier oracle within my soul

Hath swelled to power; a clear, unwavering light
Mounts through the battling clouds that round me

roll;

And to a new control

Nature's full harp gives forth rejoicing tones,

Wherein my glad sense owns

Th' accordant rush of elemental sound
To one consummate harmony profound—

One grand Creation-Hymn,

Whose notes the seraphim

Lift to the glorious height of music winged and crowned.

Despondency and Aspiration.

Shall not those notes find echoes in my lyre, Faithful though faint? Shall not my spirit's fire, If slowly, yet unswervingly, ascend

Now to its fount and end?

Shall not my.earthly love, all purified,
Shine forth a heavenward guide,

An angel of bright power-and strongly bear
My being upward into holier air,

Where fiery passion-clouds have no abode,
And the sky's temple-arch o'erflows with God?

The radiant hope new-born
Expands like rising morn

In my life's life: and as a ripening rose
The crimson shadow of its glory throws
More vivid, hour by hour, on some pure stream;
So from that hope are spreading

Rich hues, o'er nature shedding

Each day a clearer, spiritual gleam.

Let not those rays fade from me!—once enjoyed,
Father of Spirits! let them not depart—
Leaving the chilled earth, without form and void,
Darkened by mine own heart!

Lift, aid, sustain me! Thou, by whom alone
All lovely gifts and pure

In the soul's grasp endure;

Thou, to the steps of whose eternal throne
All knowledge flows-a sea for evermore
Breaking its crested waves on that sole shore-
Oh, consecrate my life! that I may sing
Of thee with joy that hath a living spring,
In a full heart of music! Let my lays

Through the resounding mountains waft thy praise,

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Despondency and Aspiration.

And with that theme the wood's green cloisters fill,
And make their quivering, leafy dimness thrill
To the rich breeze of song! Oh! let me wake
The deep religion, which hath dwelt from yore
Silently brooding by lone cliff and lake,

And wildest river-shore!

And let me summon all the voices dwelling
Where eagles build, and caverned rills are welling,
And where the cataract's organ-peal is swelling,
In that one spirit gathered to adore!

Forgive, O Father! if presumptuous thought
Too daringly in aspiration rise!

Let not thy child all vainly have been taught
By weakness, and by wanderings, and by sighs
Of sad confession! Lowly be my heart,

And on its penitential altar spread

The offerings worthless, till thy grace impart

The fire from heaven, whose touch alone can shed
Life, radiance, virtue!—let that vital spark
Pierce my whole being, wildered else and dark!

Thine are all holy things—oh, make me thine!
So shall I, too, be pure-a living shrine
Unto that Spirit which goes forth from thee,
Strong and divinely free,

Bearing thy gifts of wisdom on its flight,

And brooding o'er them with a dove-like wing,
Till thought, word, song, to thee in worship spring,
Immortally endowed for liberty and light.

Communings with Thought.

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COMMUNINGS WITH THOUGHT.

"Could we but keep our spirits to that height,
We might be happy; but this clay will sink
Its spark immortal."-BYRON.

RETURN, my thoughts-come home!

Ye wild and winged! what do ye o'er the deep?
And wherefore thus th' abyss of time o'ersweep,
As birds the ocean-foam ?

Swifter than shooting-star,
Swifter than lances of the northern-light,
Upspringing through the purple heaven of night,

Hath been your course afar!

Through the bright battle-clime,

Where laurel boughs make dim the Grecian streams,
And reeds are whispering of heroic themes,

By temples of old time:

Through the north's ancient halls,

Where banners thrilled of yore- where harp-strings rang; But grass waves now o'er those that fought and sang, Hearth-light hath left their walls!

Through forests old and dim,

Where o'er the leaves dread magic seems to brood;
And sometimes on the haunted solitude

Rises the pilgrim's hymn: