Thus, O Nuremberg, a wanderer from a region far away [lay; As he paced thy streets and court-yards, sang in thought his careless Gathering from the pavement's crevice, as a floweret of the soil, The nobility of labour, the long pedigree of toil. THE OPEN WINDOW. The old house by the lindens They walked not under the lindens, The birds sang in the branches Will be heard in dreams alone! And the boy that walked beside me I pressed his warm, soft hand! The charming touch in the last stanza has a pathos peculiar to Professor Longfellow. The next poem is also one which, if printed anonymously, we should, I think, be ready to assign to the right author. THE OLD CLOCK ON THE STAIRS. L'éternité est une pendule, dont le balancier dit et redit sans cesse ces deux mots seulement, dans le silence des tombeaux : Toujours-jamais! Jamais toujours !-JACQUES BRIDAINE. Somewhat back from the village street Tall poplar-trees their shadows throw An ancient time-piece says to all: "Forever-never! Never-forever." There groups of merry children played; And affluence of love and time! Even as a miser counts his gold Those hours the ancient time-piece told : "Forever-never! Never-forever!" From that chamber, clothed in white, The bride came forth on her wedding-night! There, in that silent room below, The dead lay in his shroud of snow! And in the hush that followed the prayer, "Forever-never! All are scattered now and fled, "Forever-never! Never-forever! " Never, here, forever there, Where all parting, pain and care, And death and time shall disappear! The horologe of Eternity Sayeth this incessantly: "Forever-never! Never-forever!" TWILIGHT. The twilight is sad and cloudy, Close, close it is pressed to the window, Were looking into the darkness, And a woman's waving shadow Now rising to the ceiling, Now bowing and bending low. And the night-wind bleak and wild, And why do the roaring ocean, And the night-wind wild and bleak, As they beat at the heart of the mother, Drive the colour from her cheek? RESIGNATION. There is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb is there! There is no fireside, howsoe'er defended, But has one vacant chair! The air is full of farewells to the dying And mournings for the dead; The heart of Rachel, for her children crying, Let us be patient! These severe afflictions Not from the ground arise, But oftentimes celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise. We see but dimly through the mists and vapours Amid these earthly damps, What seem to us but sad funereal tapers, May be heaven's distant lamps. There is no death! What seems so is transition; This life of mortal breath Is but a suburb of the life Elysian, Whose portal we call Death. She is not dead, the child of our affection, But gone unto that school Where she no longer needs our poor protection, And Christ himself doth rule. In that great cloister's stillness and seclusion Safe from temptation, safe from sin's pollution, Day after day, we think what she is doing In those bright realms of air; Year after year, her tender steps pursuing, Thus do we walk with her, and keep unbroken Thinking that our remembrance, though unspoken, Not as a child shall we again behold her, In our embraces we again enfold her, She will not be a child; But a fair maiden in her Father's mansion, Clothed with celestial grace; And beautiful, with all the soul's expansion, Shall we behold her face. And though at times impetuous with emotion And anguish long suppressed, The swelling heart heaves moaning like the ocean, We will be patient and assuage the feeling We may not wholly stay; By silence sanctifying, not concealing, The grief that must have way. I add one simile from the "Address to a Child :" By what astrology of fear or hope A prophecy and intimation, Of the great world of light that lies The concluding extract has a stronger recommendation than any other that I can give; it is Mrs. Browning's favourite among the poems of Longfellow: THE ARROW AND THE SONG. I shot an arrow into the air, I breathed a song into the air, I venture to add an anecdote new to the English public. Professor Longfellow's residence at Cambridge, a picturesque old wooden house, has belonging to it the proudest historical associations of which America can boast: it was the headquarters of Washington. One night the poet chanced to look out of his window, and saw by the vague starlight a figure riding slowly past the mansion. The face could not be distinguished; but the tall erect person, the cocked hat, the traditional costume, the often-described white horse, all were present. Slowly he paced before the house and then returned, and then again passed by, after which neither horse nor rider were seen or heard of. Could it really be Washington? or was it some frolicmasquerader assuming his honoured form? For my part I hold firmly to the ghostly side of the story; so did my informant, also a poet and an American, and as worthy to behold the spectre of the illustrious warrior as Professor Longfellow himself. I can hardly say more. |