LYRICS OF THE HEART. KIRKSTALL ABBEY REVISITED. "The echoes of its vaults are eloquent; The stones have voices, and the walls do live: It is the house of Memory!" MATURIN LONG years have passed since last I strayed, The air around was breathing balm; Steeped in a flood of golden light,— In wan, wild beauty on my sight, I climbed its dark and dizzy stair, The steps in youth I loved to tread, Have sunk beneath the foot of Time; Like them the daring hopes that led Me, once, to heights sublime, Ambition's dazzling dreams are o'er, And I may scale those heights no more! And years have fled, and now I stand Once more beside thy shattered fane, Nerveless alike in heart and hand, How changed by grief and pain, Since last I loitered here, and deemed Life was the fairy thing it seemed! And gazing on thy crumbling walls, Some trace of years gone by ;- KIRKSTALL ABBEY REVISITED. Ay, thoughts come thronging on my soul, Dreaming of Fame, and Fortune's smile, How many a wild and withering woe Hath seared my trusting heart since then; Have o'er my world-vexed spirit passed, How bright is every scene beheld In youth and hope's unclouded hours; Yet still thy turrets drink the light And calm and beauteous as of old, But life's gay morn of ecstacy, That made thee seem so passing fair,— The aspirations wild and high, The soul to nobly dare, 19 Oh, where are they, stern ruin, say?— Thou dost but echo-where are they! Adieu!-Be still to other hearts What thou wert long ago to mine; And when the blissful dream departs, Do thou a beacon shine, To guide the mourner, through his tears, To the blest scenes of happier years. Farewell!-I ask no prouder boon, Than that my parting hour may be Bright as the evening skies of June ;— Thus, thus to fade like thee, With heavenly FAITH'S soul-cheering ray To gild with glory my decay! TO NINE SISTERS. LET other bards their homage pay Its power from spells of lowlier birth! A wild, Æolian lute, whose strings, By nature swayed, no sounds impart, |