And the far wanderings of the soul in dreams,
Calling up shrouded faces from the dead,
And with them bringing soft or solemn gleams,
Familiar objects brightly to o'erspread;

And wakening buried love, or joy, or fear-
These are night's mysteries-who shall make them
clear?

And the strange inborn sense of coming ill,

That ofttimes whispers to the haunted breast, In a low tone which nought can drown or still, 'Midst feasts and melodies a secret guest; Whence doth that murmur wake, that shadow fall? Why shakes the spirit thus?-'tis mystery all!

Darkly we move

we press upon the brink Haply of viewless worlds, and know it not; Yes! it may be, that nearer than we think Are those whom death has parted from our lot! Fearfully, wondrously, our souls are madeLet us walk humbly on, but undismay’d!

Humbly-for knowledge strives in vain to feel
Her way amidst these marvels of the mind;
Yet undismay'd-for do they not reveal

Th' immortal being with our dust entwined?
So let us deem! and e'en the tears they wake
Shall then be blest, for that high nature's sake.

THE DEPARTED.

"Thou shalt lie down

With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,
The powerful of the earth-the wise-the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,

All in one mighty sepulchre."

AND shrink

ye from the way

To the spirit's distant shore?—

BRYANT.

Earth's mightiest men, in arm'd array,

Are thither gone before.

The warrior kings, whose banner

Flew far as eagles fly,

They are gone where swords avail them not,

From the feast of victory.

And the seers who sat of yore

By orient palm or wave,

They have pass'd with all their starry lore

Can ye still fear the grave?

We fear! we fear! the sunshine

Is joyous to behold,

And we reck not of the buried kings,

Nor the awful seers of old.

Ye shrink!-the bards whose lays

Have made your deep hearts burnThey have left the sun, and the voice of praise, For the land whence none return.

And the beautiful, whose record

Is the verse that cannot die,

They too are gone, with their glorious bloom,
From the love of human eye.

Would ye not join that throng
Of the earth's departed flowers,
And the masters of the mighty song
In their far and fadeless bowers?

Those songs are high and holy,

But they vanquish not our fear;
Not from our path those flowers are gone―
We fain would linger here!

Linger then yet awhile,

As the last leaves on the bough!-
Ye have loved the light of many a smile
That is taken from you now.

There have been sweet singing voices
In your walks, that now are still;

There are seats left void in your earthly homes,
Which none again may fill.

Soft eyes are seen no more,

That made Spring-time in your heart; Kindred and friends are gone before

And ye still fear to part?

We fear not now, we fear not!

Though the way through darkness bends;

Our souls are strong to follow them,

Our own familiar friends!

THE PALM-TREE.'

Ir waved not through an eastern sky,
Beside a fount of Araby;

It was not fann'd by southern breeze
In some green isle of Indian seas;
Nor did its graceful shadow sleep
O'er stream of Afric, lone and deep.

But fair the exiled palm-tree grew
'Midst foliage of no kindred hue;
Through the laburnum's dropping gold
Rose the light shaft of orient mould,
And Europe's violets, faintly sweet,
Purpled the moss-beds at its feet.

Strange look'd it there!-the willow stream'd
Where silvery waters near it gleam'd;

The lime-bough lured the honey-bee

To murmur by the desert's tree,
And showers of snowy roses made
A lustre in its fan-like shade.

There came an eve of festal hours-
Rich music fill'd that garden's bowers:
Lamps, that from flowering branches hung
On sparks of dew soft colour flung,
And bright forms glanced-a fairy show
Under the blossoms to and fro.

1 This incident is, I think, recorded by De Lille, in his poem of Les Jardins.

But one, a lone one, 'midst the throng,
Seem'd reckless all of dance or song:
He was a youth of dusky mien,
Whereon the Indian sun had been,
Of crested brow and long black hair-
A stranger, like the palm tree, there.

And slowly, sadly, moved his plumes,
Glittering athwart the leafy glooms:
He pass'd the pale green olives by,
Nor won the chestnut flowers his eye;
But when to that sole palm he came,
Then shot a rapture through his frame!

To him, to him its rustling spoke,
The silence of his soul it broke!

It whisper'd of his own bright isle,
That lit the ocean with a smile;
Ay, to his ear that native tone
Had something of the sea wave's moan!

His mother's cabin home, that lay
Where feathery cocoas fringed the bay;
The dashing of his brethren's oar—
The conch-note heard along the shore;
All through his wakening bosom swept-
He clasp'd his country's tree and wept!

Oh, scorn him not!—the strength whereby
The patriot girds himself to die,
Th' unconquerable power which fills
The freeman battling on his hills—

These have one fountain deep and clear

The same whence gush'd that childlike tear!