Seeming empty to the eye,
Yet within this magic space,
Mantled all in golden grace,
Many costly gems do lie.
Like the blessings angels shed
From the wafture of their wings
Are these ghosts of lovely things, —
Love, and hope, and pleasure dead.
Guard these treasures of the Past!
Soon the shadows dim the day;
All the world will pass away, —
These alone remain at last.

Hey, rose, just born
Twin to a thorn;
Was't so with you, O Love and Scorn?

Sweet eyes that smiled,
Now wet and wild;
O Eye and Tear—mother and child.

Well: Love and Pain
Be kinsfolk twain:
Yet would, Oh would I could love again.

Oh! a heart it loves, it loves thee,
That never loved before,
Oh! a heart it loves, it loves thee,
That heart can love no more.

As the rose was in the bud, love,
Ere it opened into sight,
As yon star, in drumlie daylight,
Behind the blue was bright, —

So thine image in my heart, love,
As pure, as bright, as fair,
Thyself unseen, unheeded,
I saw and loved it there.

Oh! a heart it loves, it loves thee,
As heart ne'er loved before;
Oh! a heart it loves, loves, loves thee,
That heart can love no more.

O soft is the ringdove's eye of love
When her mate returns from a weary flight;
And brightest of all the stars above
Is the one bright star that leads the night.

But softer thine eye than the dove's by far,
When of friendship and pity thou speakest to me;
And brighter, O brighter, than eve's one star,
When of love, sweet maid, I speak to thee.

" You have the Earth, O Sun! "
Sang the Moon;
" But I, but I have the Sea! "

" You have the Sun, O Earth! "
Sang the Sea;
" But I, but I have the Moon! "

Then the Sun and the Earth
Made mirth;
And the Sea and the Moon
Sang on;
And Love, who listened, caught up the strain
To sing it into our hearts again.
And I know not how, but that oldest rune
Of the Sea and the Moon
Holds all the mystery and love-lore
Of the world and many a planet more;
But Love knows the tune.

I.

And shall we meet in heaven, and know and love?
Do human feelings in that world above
Unchanged survive? blest thought! but ah, I fear
That thou, dear sister, in some other sphere,
Distant from mine, will find a brighter home,
Where I, unworthy found, may never come; —
Or be so high above me glorified,
That I, a meaner angel, undescribed,
Seeking thine eyes, such love alone shall see
As angels give to all bestowed on me;
And when my voice upon thy ear shall fall,
Hear only such reply as angels give to all.

II.

A kind war-wave dashed thee and me together;
So we have drifted to the shores of peace,
A wintry shore, attained in wintry weather.
Must here our loving cease?

Ah, was not ancient Love born of the ocean?
And is not our Love a tempest child
That rose from out the seething war's commotion
And blessed it, as she smiled?

The buffets of this storm I have forgiven,
And all its drunken, rude barbarity,
Aye, I have begged a blessing on't from heaven
Because it brought me thee!

My soul doth utterly refuse to render

I asked my heart to say
Some word whose worth my love's devoir might pay
Upon my Lady's natal day.

Then said my heart to me:
Learn from the rhyme that now shall come to thee
What fits thy Love most lovingly.

This gift that learning shows;
For, as a rhyme unto its rhyme-twin goes,
I send a rose unto a Rose.

I.

I have been wont to bear my head on high,
Haughty and stern am I of mood and mien;
Yea, tho' a king should gaze on me, I ween,
I should not at his gaze cast down my eye.

But I will speak, dear Mother, candidly:
When most puffed up my haughty mood hath been,
At thy sweet presence, blissful and serene,
I feel the shudder of humility.

Does thy soul all unknown my soul subdue,
Thy lofty soul that pierces all things thro'

Consumed by love of Beauty, and aflame
At human heart with half-celestial fire,
Kindled by torch of sensuous desire,
At once his torment, happiness, and shame,
A glow more fierce than frosty age could tame,
Buonarroti taught this blaze aspire
Burning to sacred incense on the pyre
Of pure devotion to Colonna's name.
Yet even when kneeling on the brink of death,
Praying for grace, confessing earthly love,
He would condone it with a chastening rod,
And justify, with penitential breath,
Passion akin to nobler hopes above,