They drew their chairs up side by side, Their pale cheeks joined, and said, "Once more!" O memories! O past that is! 10 MAY I JOIN THE CHOIR INVISIBLE." O MAY I join the choir invisible Of those immortal dead who live again In minds made better by their presence: live In pulses stirred to generosity, In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn For miserable aims that end with self, In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars, And with their mild persistence urge man's search To vaster issues. So to live is heaven: To make undying music in the world, Breathing as beauteous order that controls With growing sway the growing life of man. So we inherit that sweet purity For which we struggled, failed, and agonized With widening retrospect that bred despair. Rebellious flesh that would not be subdued, A vicious parent shaming still its child Poor anxious penitence, is quick dissolved; Its discords, quenched by meeting har monies, Die in the large and charitable air. That watched to ease the burden of the world, Laboriously tracing what must be, And what may yet be better — saw within A worthier image for the sanctuary, And shaped it forth before the multitude Divinely human, raising worship so To higher reverence more mixed with love That better self shall live till human Time Shall fold its eyelids, and the human sky Be gathered like a scroll within the tomb WILLIAM COX BENNETT. 1820 [BORN at Greenwich in 1820. Son of a watchmaker, at which business he was put when be was 14 years old. He has taken an active part in all the agitations for popular education during the past thirty years, is the Hon. Sec. to the Greenwich branch of the National Education League, and a member of the London Council. Has published several volumes of poems, but is best known as a song-writer. Dr. Bennett is a practised political writer, and was for several years on the editorial staff of The Weekly Dispatch. The University of Tusculum conferred on him the degree of LL.D. in 1869. A collected edition of his poems appeared in 1852, in Routledge's British Poets.] [BORN in Ireland about 1820: published in 1850 a volume of Ballads, Poems, and Lyrics, with translations from several modern languages. Issued in 1853 a translation of Calderon's dramas; in 1857 two new volumes of Poems; and, in 1872, Shelby's Early Life, from original sources. In 1871 he received a pension of £100, in recognition of literary merit. Died April 7. 1882.] SUMMER AH! my heart is weary waiting, Waiting for the pleasant rambles Ah! my heart is weary waiting, LONGINGS. Ah! my heart is sick with longing, Longing to escape from study |