"THE WORLD, 'TIS A WILDERNESS, WHERE TEARS ARE HUNG ON EVERY TREE."-THOMAS HOOD.

"ALAS, ALAS! THAT WE MUST LEARN HOURS' FLIGHT-THOMAS HOOD

THE FAIRIES OF THE GROVES.

199

Sure, I said, Heaven did not mean
Where I reap thou shouldst but glean :
Lay thy sheaf adown, and come,

Share my harvest and my home.
[From

"Hood's Poems," ed. Moxon, 1855.]

THE FAIRIES OF THE GROVES.

[The Fairies, threatened with death by Saturn, or Time, implore him to spare their lives on account of their services to humanity. First come those "elfin things" which have in charge the feathered minstrels of the grove, to plead their cause.]

A

NON I saw one of those elfin things,
Clad all in white like any chorister,

Come fluttering forth on his melodious wings,
That made soft music at each little stir,
But something louder than a bee's demur
Before he lights upon a bunch of broom;
And thus 'gan he with Saturn to confer,-
And oh, his voice was sweet, touched with the gloom-
Of that sad thing that argued of his doom.

Quoth he, "We make all melodies our care,
That no false discords may offend the Sun,
Music's great master-tuning everywhere
All pastoral sounds and melodies, each one
Duly to place and season, so that none
May harshly interfere. We rouse at morn
The shrill sweet lark; and when the day is done,
Hush silent pauses for the bird forlorn,

That singeth with her breast against a thorn.

BY THE SAME LIGHT OF LOVE THAT MAKES THEM BRIGHT." HOOD.

"GRIEF IS ENOUGH TO BLOT THE EYE, AND MAKE HEAVEN BLACK WITH MISERY."-T. HOOD.

200

66

CERTAIN OF OUR MOST ROMANTIC SCHEMES

THOMAS HOOD.

"We gather in loud choirs the twittering race,
That make a chorus with their single note;
And tend on new-fledged birds in every place,
That duly they may get their tunes by rote;
And oft, like echoes, answering remote,
We hide in thickets from the feathered throng,
And strain in rivalship each throbbing throat,
Singing in shrill responses all day long,
Whilst the glad truant listens to our song.

"Wherefore, great King of Years, as thou dost love
The raining music from a morning cloud,
When vanished larks are carolling above,
To wake Apollo with their piping loud ;—
If ever thou hast heard in leafy shroud
The sweet and plaintive Sappho of the dell,
Show thy sweet mercy on this little crowd,
And we will muffle up the sheepfold bell
Whene'er thou listenest to Philomel."

[From the "Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," stanzas xxix. to xxxii.l

"ALL THINGS ARE TOUCHED WITH MELANCHOLY, BORN OF THE SECRET SOUL'S DISTRUST,

THE FAIRIES OF THE SPRING.

|HEN next a fair Eve-Fay made meek address,
Saying, "We be the handmaids of the Spring,
In sign whereof, May, the quaint broideress,
Hath wrought her samplers on our gauzy wing.
We tend upon buds' birth and blossoming,
And count the leafy tributes that they owe—
As, so much to the earth-so much to fling
In showers to the brook-so much to go
In whirlwinds to the clouds that made them grow.

ARE SOMETHING MORE THAN FICTIONS."-HOOD.

TO FEEL HER FAIR ETHEREAL WINGS WEIGHED DOWN WITH VILE DEGRADED DUST."-HOOD.

"WHY SHINES THE SUN, EXCEPT THAT HE MAKES GLOOMY NOOKS FOR GRIEF TO HIDE,-(HOOD)

"LOST TO SIGHT, TH' ECSTATIC LARK ABOVE-HOOD)

"The pastoral cowslips are our little pets,
And daisy stars, whose firmament is green;
Pansies, and those veiled nuns, meek violets,
Sighing to that warm world from which they screen;
And golden daffodils, plucked for May's Queen;
And lonely harebells, quaking on the heath;
And hyacinth, long since a fair youth seen,
Whose tuneful voice, turned fragrance in his breath,
Kissed by sad Zephyr, guilty of his death.
"The widowed primrose weeping to the moon,
And saffron crocus in whose chalice bright
A cool libation hoarded for the noon
Is kept; and she that purifies the light,
The virgin lily, faithful to her white,
Whereon Eve wept in Eden for her shame;
And the most dainty rose, Aurora's spright;
Our every godchild, by whatever name-

Spare us our

lives, for we did nurse the same!"

[From the "Plea of the Midsummer Fairies," stanzas xxxv. to xxxvii.]

AND PENSIVE SHADES FOR MELANCHOLY, WHEN ALL THE EARTH IS BRIGHT BESIDE?"-HOOD.

Lord Houghton.

[RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, LORD HOUGHTON, was born on the 19th

of June 1809.

In

1831

he graduated as Bachelor of Arts at Trinity College, he was elected Member of Parliament for Pontefract, continued to represent on Liberal principles, and with

Cambridge. In 1837

which borough he

the esteem and respect of both sides of the House, until his elevation to the Peerage in August 1863. His principal works are-" Memorials of a Tour

in Greece;

and

Several volumes of poetry, entitled, "Palm Leaves" and

"Poems of Many Years."

graceful imagination, and kindly nature. They are addressed, not so much
Lord Houghton's poems are the poems of a man of refined intellect,
to the "universal heart," as, to use the language of a critic in the Quarterly

Review, to " ་་

a

circle of sympathetic friends, or to hearers harmonized in tone

SINGS,

LIKE A SOUL BEATIFIED, OF LOVE."-T. HOOD.

202

66 WE LIVE FROM HOUR TO HOUR, AND HAVe no right,-(lord hougHTON)

LORD HOUGHTON.

men.

by the moderation and reserve which are a note of refined society." Leav-
ing the humorous side of existence, no less than its fierce passions, he deals
"with the more emotional elements in English life, or those which invite
reflection upon the contrasts of human existence in the minds of cultivated
His verse, however, is singularly free-whether in subject or in
diction-from the merely artificial colours of society, from painting fashion
or frivolity. The notes of the world's great lyrical singers have a greater
compass; but within the range adopted—and it is no small range-Lord
Houghton's are true notes, and he never strains them. There is a pervad-
ing tone of elegance; an entire freedom from affectation; the finish of a
writer who knows the best models, and has put all he can into his work
before leaving it."]

"WE MAY ENJOY OUR INTERCHANGE OF SOULS LONG, AND IN MANY SHAPES OF TIME AND FATE;

BUT TO THE SCENE OF THIS TO-DAY LET US, WHATE'ER BEFAll, never RETURN!"-LORD HOUGHTON.

THE SOLITUDE OF LIFE.

HEN Fancy's exhalations rise

From Youth's delicious morn,

Our eyes seem made for others' eyes,
Spirit for spirit born:

But time the simple faith controls,—
We learn too soon, alas!

How wide the gulf between two souls-
How difficult to pass !

In twilight and in fearfulness
We feel our path along

From heart to heart, yet none the less
Our way is often wrong:

And then new dangers must be faced,
New doubts must be dispelled;
For not one step can be retraced
That once the Past has held.

To some 'tis given to walk awhile

In Love's unshaded noon;

But clouds are gathering while they smile,

And night is coming soon!

HOLDING NO POWER, TO FETTER FUTURE YEARS."-LORD HOUGHTON.

"TRUST NOT THE DEAR PALLADIUM OF THE PAST UPON THE FUTURE'S BREAST

THE PAST IS OURS,-(HOUGHTON)

"FIRST LOVE RETURNS NOT; FRIENDSHIP COMES NOT BACK

THE SOLITUDE OF LIFE.

Most happy he whose journey lies
Beneath the starlight sheen
of unregretful memories
Of glory that has been.

We live together years and years,
And live unsounded still
Each other's springs of hopes and fears,
Each other's depths of will:
We live together day by day,
And some chance look or tone
Lights up, with instantaneous ray,
An inner world unknown.

Then wonder not that they who love

The longest and the best,

Are

parted by some sudden move Of passion or unrest;

Nor marvel that the wise and good

Should oft apart remain,
Nor dare, when once misunderstood,
To sympathize again.

Come, Death! and match thy quiet gloom
With being's darkling strife;
Come, set beside the lonely tomb

The Solitude of Life:

And henceforth none who see can fear
Thy hour, which some will crave,

203

Who feel their hearts, though beating here,

Already in the grave.

[From "Poems of Many Years."]

THINGS

ARE GIVEN US ONCE, AND ONLY ONCE."-LORD HOUGHTON.

AND WE CAN BUILD A TEMPLE OF RARE THOUGHTS, ADORNED WITH ALL AFFECTION'S TRACERY."-LORD HOUGHTON,